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THE  BEATITUDES  OF  JESUS. 


VESPER    ADDRESSES 

ON 
THE   OCTAVE  OF   BLESSEDNESS 


Given  in  Trinity  Church,  San  Jose,  Cal.,  and  at  the 
Church  Divinity  School,  San  Mateo, 


BY 

J.  WILMER  /  GRESHAM,  B.D. 

WITH  INTRODUCTORY  WORDS 
BY  THE 

THE   BISHOP   OF   CALIFORNIA 


SAN  JOSE,  CAL. 

MELVIN  &  MURGOTTEN.  INC. 

1908 


TO    THE 

REV.  WILLIAM   P.   DuBOSE,    S.T.D. 

IN    GRATEFUL    REMEMBRANCE 

OF   THE    INSPIRATION    AND    GUIDANCE     OF    THOSE 
CHERISHED    YEARS    "ON    THE    MOUNTAIN*' 

AT    SEWANEE,  WHEN,  BEFORE  THE 

WORLD  KNEW  HIM  THROUGH  HIS  WRITINGS, 

"  HIS  DISCIPLES  CAME  UNTO  HIM," 

AND    KNEW    HIM    AS    THEIR 

TEACHER    AND    FRIEND. 


INTRODUCTORY   WORDS 


BY     THE 


Bishop  of  California. 


WHEN,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  people  flock  to 
a  Vesper  Service  at  an  hour  in  the  late  after- 
noon generally  supposed  to  be  least  hopeful  for 
large  congregations,  there  is  some  reason  for  it. 
The  many  must  have  caught  some  message. 

The  following  addresses  on  The  Beatitudes  of 
Jesus,  which  were  delivered  at  Trinity  Church, 
San  Jose",  had  that  evidence  of  their  message. 
They  were  spoken  without  manuscript  to  those 
who  heard  them.  Happily,  in  order  that  others 
may  read  the  same  message,  the  addresses  have 
been  written  out  and  printed  here.  The  sus- 
tained interest  of  the  congregations  proves  the 
perennial  vitality  of  "preaching  Jesus."  This 
showing  one  reason  why  people  go  to  Church  is 


Introductory  Words. 

far  more  effective  than  any  number  of  reasons 
why  they  do  not  go  to  Church. 

"The  Octave  of  Blessedness"  is  the  felicitous 
phrase  chosen  in  the  sub-title  to  note  the  fact 
that  the  eight  "Beatitudes  are  both  mutually 
related  and  individually  distinct,"  and  that  this 
"constitutes  at  once  their  inspiration  and  their 
charm."  And  the  range  of  interpretation  in 
the  chording  of  the  Beatitudes  to  profound  hu- 
man need  and  aspiration  reveals  music  which 
breathes  of  the  harmonies  of  spiritual  counter- 
point. Benedictus  benedicat. 

WILLIAM  F.  NICHOLS. 

The  Bishop's  House,  San  Francisco, 
ST.  LUKE'S  DAY,  1908. 


THE    BEATITUDES    OF   JESUS. 
St.  Matthew  :  Fifth  Chapter. 


Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit:  for  theirs 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

Blessed  are  they  that  mourn:  for  they 
shall  be  comforted. 

Blessed  are  the  meek:  for  they  shall  in- 
herit the  earth. 

Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst 
after  righteousness:  for  they  shall  be  filled. 

Blessed  are  the  merciful:  for  they  shall 
obtain  mercy. 

Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart:  for  they 
shall  see  God. 

Blessed  are  the  peacemakers:  for  they 
shall  be  called  sons  of  God. 

Blessed  are  they  that  have  been  persecuted 
for  righteousness'  sake:  for  theirs  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 


At  first  the  music  of  the  Beatitudes 
tells  out  its  sweetness  in  the  simplicity  of 
familiar  melody,  but  as  the  ear  of  man's 
spiritual  nature  comes  to  catch  its  deep 
undertones  and  to  trace  its  hidden  har- 
monies, the  nature  of  its  simplicity  is 
heightened  and  deepened,  its  simple  uni- 
son rises  into  majestic  harmony,  and 
this  harmony  is  simplicity  brought  to  its 
perfect  state.  In  a  word,  the  simplicity 
of  the  Beatitudes  is  the  simplicity  of  the 
character  of  Christ. 


V 

THE    BLESSEDNESS 


I.  OF  THE  POOR  IN  SPIRIT  ....  1 

II.  OF  THOSE  THAT  MOURN      ...  19 

III.  OF  THE  MEEK 37 

IV.  OF  THE  QUEST  FOR  RIGHTEOUSNESS  55 
V.  OF  THE  MERCIFUL 75 

VI.  OF  THE  PURE  IN  HEART     ...  93 

VII.  OF  THE  PEACEMAKERS      .     .     .     .  Ill 

VIII.  OF  THE  PERSECUTED  .     .  127 


OF  THE  POOR   IN  SPIRIT. 


'Blessed  are  the  Poor  in  Spirit: 
for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.11 


THE  BEATITUDES  OF  JESUS. 

i. 

OF  THE  POOR  IN  SPIRIT. 

ONE  God,  one  law,  one  element," 
wrote  Tennyson,  in  words  of  in- 
sight only  a  shade  less  familiar  to  the 
popular  mind  than  the  words  of  vision 
with  which  the  noble  passage  closes,  "and 
one  far-off  divine  event  to  which  the 
whole  creation  moves."  With  deeper 
insight  and  diviner  vision,  in  the  chaste 
forms  of  the  simplest  speech,  or  veiled 
under  luminous  parable,  the  Man  of 
Nazareth  spoke  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heav- 
en, or  of  God.  This  expression  came 
to  signify  to  him,  with  ever-increasing 
completeness,  that  conception  of  the 
divine  order  which  it  was  his  mission  to 
reveal  to  human  consciousness,  and  ul- 
timately to  fulfill  in  human  history.  The 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

"Kingdom  of  Heaven"  is  the  first  con- 
crete expression  that  falls  from  his  lips 
as  he  stands  on  the  threshold  of  his  min- 
istry, and  it  is  the  substance  of  his  final 
teaching  during  the  great  forty  days  that 
stretch  in  the  after-glow  of  his  resurrec- 
tion. He  seems  to  have  lengthened  his 
stay  upon  earth  in  order  to  unfold  its 
deeper  meanings  in  the  light  of  his  ac- 
complished work.  Thus  we  find  it  set 
forth  in  the  initial  beatitude  as  the  spirit- 
ual blessedness  that  awaits  the  poor  in 
spirit,  and  it  greets  us  in  the  closing  be- 
atitude as  the  reward  of  those  who  are 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake.  The 
keynote,  touched  in  the  opening  chord, 
is  heard  again  with  added  richness  of 
meaning  in  the  closing  strain,  while  each 
of  the  related  intermediate  harmonies 
may  be  traced  by  the  spiritual  ear. 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN. 

This  thought,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
which  underlies  the  structure  of  the  be- 
atitudes, is  woven  into  the  texture  of  the 
2 


Of  the  Poor  in  Spirit, 

Master's  life,  and  forms  the  substance 
of  his  best  authenticated  teaching.  It 
shadows  forth  with  marvelous  clearness 
of  delineation  his  conception  of  his  mis- 
sion to  earth,  and  expresses  his  deepest 
conviction  of  the  ultimate  relation  of  God 
to  man  and  the  universe.  In  attempt- 
ing an  analysis  of  the  first  beatitude, 
we  shall  find  our  reflections  materially 
assisted  by  viewing  the  natural  divis- 
ions of  our  simple  text  in  their  reverse 
order.  Let  us  ask  ourselves,  first,  what 
this  expression,  "the  Kingdom  of  Heav- 
en," meant  to  the  Master,  and  what  he 
intends  it  should  mean  to  us.  Then  let 
us  inquire  who  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  and 
in  what  sense  the  Kingdom  is  theirs. 
What,  then,  are  we  to  understand  by  the 
phrase,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  as  it 
takes  its  place  in  the  earliest  teaching  of 
Jesus  ?  Many  learned  volumes  have  been 
written  in  reply  to  this  question.  It  is 
easy  enough  to  be  dogmatic,  and  to  dis- 
miss the  inquiry  by  framing  a  reply  in 
the  rigid  terms  of  a  cold  traditionalism. 

3 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus 

The  seeker  of  mere  novelty  of  expres- 
sion, on  the  other  hand,  often  as  dogmatic 
as  the  theological  traditionalist  himself, 
is  justly  reminded  that  the  new  may  not 
be  true,  and  the  true  may  not  be  new. 
Yet  for  our  comfort,  we  may  reflect  that 
every  sincere  attempt  to  conceive  and 
express  the  truth  may  be  in  some  real, 
though  relative  sense,  both  new  and  true. 

THE    UNFOLDING    OF    THE    KINGDOM. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
idea  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  in  the 
heart  and  mind  of  Jesus  passed  through 
successive  stages  of  unfolding,  and  was 
in  fact  as  organic  in  its  nature  as  the 
Kingdom  itself.  We  cannot  trace  these 
stages  with  any  degree  of  certainty,  but 
we  can  offer  reverent,  and,  perhaps, 
reasonable  conjecture.  The  average  mind 
is  strangely  averse  to  admission  of  the 
progressive  development  of  the  mental 
conceptions  of  Jesus.  If  the  admission 
is  made,  as  the  records  require,  it  is  made 
with  reservations  that  virtually  inval- 

4 


Of  the  Poor  in  Spirit. 

idate  it.  But  waiving  all  discussion  of 
the  subject,  let  us  reflect  upon  the 
unfolding  of  the  Kingdom  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  Jesus.  There  were  two 
central  thoughts  that  lay  at  the  heart  of 
his  teachings,  and  to  which  all  that  he 
said  and  did  stood  related.  They  were 
the  thought  of  God  in  his  relation  to  man, 
and  the  thought  of  man  is  his  relation  to 
God.  During  the  thirty  years  of  his 
retirement  from  the  world,  when,  amid 
the  familiar  scenes  of  his  Nazareth  home, 
Jesus  waxed  strong  in  spirit,  filled  with 
wisdom,  with  the  grace  of  God  ever  upon 
him,  these  thoughts  matured  with  his 
expanding  intelligence,  shedding  light 
upon  the  problems  of  faith  and  the  ques- 
tions of  duty,  for  we  read  that  he  grew 
in  favour  with  "God  and  man."  The  one 
recorded  incident  of  his  boyhood  points 
to  this  two-fold  direction  of  his  develop- 
ment, where  we  find  the  balance  between 
his  Godward  and  manward  relations 
carefully  maintained.  Surely,  it  must 
have  been  from  sources  such  as  these 

5 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

that  his  earliest  conception  of  the  King- 
dom took  shape;  and  while  the  dream  of 
a  Messianic  mission  must  have  tinged 
his  thought,  the  spiritual  principle  that 
animated  his  mind  would  ultimately  free 
that  conception  from  every  restrictive 
influence.  When  we  next  see  him  he  is 
standing  at  the  entrance  of  his  ministry 
with  the  words,  "Thou  art  my  beloved 
Son,"  falling  like  a  benediction  on  his 
soul,  and  the  Baptist's  cry,  "the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  is  at  hand,"  ringing  in  his 
ears.  Yet  he  is  keenly  aware  of  the 
temper  of  the  expectancy  that  greets 
him  in  the  waning  light  of  the  Baptist's 
ministry.  It  is  Messianic ;  and  it  is  borne 
in  upon  him  that  his  Kingdom  must 
transcend  his  own  boyhood's  dreams  and 
Israel's  expectations.  The  next  stage 
is  that  of  the  temptation.  No  thoughtful 
student  of  the  temptation  narratives  can 
fail  to  note  their  bearing  upon  the  Messi- 
anic question,  or  to  trace  the  influence  of 
that  inward  struggle  upon  the  great 
central  truths  that  lay  at  the  heart  of  the 

6 


Of  the  Poor  in  Spirit. 

human  development  of  Jesus.  Perhaps 
the  radiant  vision  of  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  and  the  glory  of  them  never 
entirely  faded  from  his  soul,  but  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  henceforth  meant 
for  him,  God's  presence  and  God's  rule 
realized  in  human  consciousness;  and 
when  he  crowns  his  first  Beatitude  with 
the  phrase  "for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,"  he  is  speaking  from  a  region 
of  spiritual  elevation  whose  condition 
he  has  tested,  whose  laws  he  has  mas- 
tered, and  into  whose  blessedness  he 
would  lead  mankind. 

Before  passing  on  to  define  the  mean- 
ing of  the  phrase  "the  poor  in  spirit,"  we 
have  but  to  notice  that  this  Beatitude 
places  the  possession  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  in  the  present  tense.  This  tense 
is  not  repeated  until  the  eighth  Beatitude 
is  reached,  when  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
is  mentioned  as  the  reward  of  the 
persecuted.  Manifestly  the  impression 
intended  to  be  conveyed  is  that  the  King- 
dom is  in  some  deep  sense  "at  hand"  as  a 

7 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

possible  fact  of  experience,  a  divine  event, 
whose  consummation  awaits  the  fulfill- 
ment of  its  clearly  stated  law. 

POVERTY  OF  SPIRIT. 

"Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for 
theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  We 
can  best  arrive  at  an  understanding  of 
the  condition  imposed,  by  excluding  the 
false  explanations  that  meet  us  at  the 
outset.  From  the  rendering  of  the  Beati- 
tude in  the  twentieth  verse  of  the  sixth 
chapter  of  St.  Luke,  "Blessed  be  ye 
poor,"  it  is  evident  that  the  poverty 
mentioned  in  the  third  Gospel  is  intended 
to  imply  a  condition  of  material  cir- 
cumstance, and  this  is  supported  by  the 
antithesis  in  the  twenty-fourth  verse, 
where  the  evangelist  represents  Christ  as 
saying:  "But  woe  unto  you  that  are  rich." 
In  interpreting  the  Beatitude,  we  might 
dismiss  from  our  minds  this  aspect  of 
poverty,  but  for  its  evident  bearing  upon 
a  closely  related  condition.  It  seems 
quite  clear  that  we  have  in  the  two 

8 


Of  the  Poor  in  Spirit. 

accounts,  reports  of  the  Master's  teaching 
on  two  distinct  occasions,  and  under 
widely  differing  circumstances.  At  the 
same  time  it  must  be  admitted  that 
Christ,  both  in  his  teaching  and  by  his 
example,  exalts  the  condition  of  material 
poverty  as  conducive  to  spiritual  advan- 
tage. But  never  does  he  exalt  it  for  its 
own  sake  as  inherently  meritorious.  In 
all  his  references  to  the  subject,  he  seems 
to  lay  down  the  principle  that  disciple- 
ship  involves  a  certain  detachment  which 
is  equally  indifferent  to  wealth  or  pov- 
erty; that  a  man's  best  life  "consisteth 
not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  that 
he  possesseth."  Material  poverty  is  to 
be  understood  as  blessed  only  as  it  min- 
isters to  the  spirit  of  detachment.  On 
the  other  hand,  one's  wealth  and  mate- 
rial advantage  may  be  administered  in 
the  spirit  of  a  stewardship  that  will  make 
effectively  for  precisely  the  same  temper  of 
detachment.  Yet  because  the  character- 
istic tendency  of  material  affluence  is  in  the 
opposite  direction,  we  can  understand 

9 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

that  the  Master  would  say  as  the  rich 
young  ruler  passed  out  of  his  sight,  "how 
hardly  shall  they  that  trust  in  riches  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  and  to 
those  who,  while  deprived  of  this  world's 
good  things,  were  rich  towards  God, 
"Blessed  be  ye  poor." 

POVERTY  AND  THE  KINGDOM. 

We  must  bear  in  mind,  however,  that 
St.  Matthew's  designation  "poor  in  spirit" 
releases  us  from  the  necessity  of  defending 
the  blessedness  that  belongs  to  a  condi- 
tion of  material  privation,  and  limits  our 
discussion  to  a  state  or  condition  within 
the  spirit  of  man.  The  region  of  man's 
spiritual  nature  is  clearly  the  region 
designated.  But  what  is  meant  by  man's 
spiritual  nature  ?  Surely  poverty  of  spirit 
means  neither  a  false  humility  regarding 
one's  endowments  or  acquisitions  of  mind, 
nor  an  unreal  depreciation  of  one's  native 
or  acquired  qualities  of  character.  What- 
ever our  spiritual  pastors  and  masters 
may  have  taught  us  in  time  past,  we  are 
10 


Of  the  Poor  in  Spirit. 

neither  to  regard  our  thoughts  as  alto- 
gether vain,  nor  our  righteousnesses  as 
filthy  rags,  nor  ourselves  as  vile  earth 
and  miserable  sinners. 

What  then  are  we  to  understand  as  the 
poverty  of  spirit  named  in  the  Beatitude  ? 
Clearly  it  is  an  attitude  of  the  soul.  In 
general  terms  it  is  a  recognition  that  man 
is  incomplete  apart  from  God.  As  re- 
gards its  personal  meaning  to  the  indi- 
vidual, there  are  two  elements  that  enter 
into  it,  and  give  it  definiteness.  First, 
it  must  be  conscious  poverty.  That  which 
makes  poverty  poverty  is  one's  keen 
consciousness  of  it.  All  men  need  God, 
few  men  are  deeply  conscious  of  that  need. 
The  other  element  is  that  it  is  an  un- 
satisfied poverty.  The  oft-quoted  phrase 
of  St.  Augustine,  "Thou  hast  made  us  for 
thyself,  O  Lord,  and  our  heart  will  find 
no  rest  till  it  rests  in  thee,"  expresses 
this  most  perfectly.  This  sense  of  un- 
satisfied incompleteness  passes  into  spirit- 
ual yearning  and  receptiveness,  which  is 
but  another  name  for  poverty  of  spirit. 
11 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

In  what  sense  can  it  be  said  of  those  who 
meet  these  terms  that  theirs  is  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven?  In  a  sense  not  unlike 
that  in  which  we  may  speak  of  the  King- 
dom of  Knowledge  as  the  possession  of 
the  mind  that,  being  uninformed  and 
ignorant,  is  both  sorrowfully  aware  of  the 
limitation,  and  resolutely  bent  on  over- 
coming it.  To  be  ignorant,  to  be  conscious 
of  ignorance,  and  to  be  dissatisfied  with 
ignorance,  means  mental  effort,  and  this, 
persisted  in,  means  mental  acquisition, 
or  entrance  into  the  Kingdom  of  Know- 
ledge. Poverty  of  spirit  likewise  opens 
wide  its  doors  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
and  a  spiritual  process  is  begun,  whose 
completion  will  not  be  reached  till  man's 
spirit  is  filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God. 

THE  CONTENT  OF  BLESSEDNESS. 

It  remains  for  us  to  define  or  suggest 
the  meaning  that  lies  behind  this  key- 
word of  the  Beatitudes,  which  more  than 
any  other  single  expression  of  the  Master 
represents  his  conception  of  the  summum 
12 


Of  the  Poor  in  Spirit. 

bonum  of  his  spiritual  kingdom.  There 
is  a  sense  in  which  the  very  nature  of 
this  blessedness  precludes  definition,  inas- 
much as  it  is  the  spiritual  state  of  those 
who  have  met  the  several  conditions 
named  in  the  Beatitudes.  There  is  a  subtle 
danger  in  attempting  to  reason  by  anal- 
ogy from  the  lower  to  the  higher,  as 
when  in  our  interpretation  we  construe 
blessedness  as  a  kind  of  heightened  or 
glorified  happiness.  But  when  the  Beati- 
tudes are  regarded  as  a  self -revelation  of 
Christ  it  becomes  evident  that  he  himself 
must  have  been  in  possession  of  the  bless- 
edness which  he  promises  as  a  result  of 
the  fulfillment  of  the  conditions  set  forth 
in  the  Beatitudes,  and  our  hope  of  arriving 
at  an  understanding  of  the  nature  of  that 
blessedness  turns  upon  the  degree  of  our 
insight  into  the  spiritual  state  in  which 
Christ  lived  and  had  his  being.  Our  task 
is  greatly  lightened  as  we  watch  the  move- 
ment of  his  life  through  successive  periods 
of  its  unfolding,  and  then  pause  to  con- 
template the  disclosures  that  marked  the 

13 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

concluding  days  of  his  ministry.  When, 
for  example,  he  speaks  of  his  joy,  his  love, 
and  his  peace,  as  inherent  in  his  own 
spiritual  state,  we  cannot  fathom  the 
meaning  of  these  elemental  qualities,  but 
we  can  conceive  them  as  belonging  to  the 
content  of  his  blessedness,  and  it  is  infin- 
itely reassuring,  to  those  who  are  seeking 
the  Kingdom  of  God  by  the  path  of  the 
Beatitudes,  to  find  that  in  the  Master's 
use  of  each  of  these  terms,  he  claims  for 
his  followers  a  share  of  whatever  spiritual 
condition  they  imply,  which  is  equivalent 
to  bidding  his  disciples  share  his  blessed- 
ness. The  law  or  principle  of  this  partic- 
ipation we  find  set  forth  in  the  Beatitudes, 
from  obedience  to  which  there  is  no 
exemption  for  Master  or  disciple. 


14 


OF  THOSE  THAT   MOURN. 


"Blessed  are  they  that  Mourn:  for 
they  shall  be  Comforted." 


OF*  THOSE  THAT  MOURN. 

NOWHERE,  in  all  the  range  of 
Christ's  teaching,  can  we  find  his 
character  more  completely  mirrored  than 
in  the  Beatitudes.  In  portraying  the 
beauty  and  the  blessedness  of  the  Perfect 
Life,  the  Master  has  unconsciously  given 
to  the  world  a  description  of  himself,  so 
that  with  entire  truthfulness  it  may  be 
said  that  henceforth  the  Perfect  Life  and 
the  Christ  Life  are  terms  of  equal  mean- 
ing. On  this  account  both  the  character 
and  the  words  of  Jesus  are  invested  with 
an  added  beauty  and  significance.  It  is 
quite  conceivable  that  the  Perfect  Life 
might  have  been  lived  without  its  lofty 
principles  being  crystallized  in  human 
speech.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Master, 
dwelling  in  the  light  which  no  man  can 

19 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

approach  unto,  might  have  tempered  his 
disclosure  of  spiritual  truth  with  reference 
to  human  limitations,  as  when  he  later 
declared,  "I  have  many  things  to  say 
unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now." 
In  either  case  the  connection  between  the 
life  and  the  teaching  would  have  been 
remote  and  unreal,  and  we  should  find 
ourselves  groping  dimly  in  the  twilight 
of  conjecture,  with  no  clear  light  upon 
the  path  of  precept  or  example.  As 
the  case  stands,  the  Beatitudes  become 
luminous  with  meaning,  for  the  Master's 
words  interpret  and  reveal  his  life,  and 
his  life  in  turn  clothes  his  words  with 
infinite  beauty  and  preciousness. 

TWO  RELATED  TRUTHS. 

Our  first  impression  of  the  Beatitude, 
"Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,  for  they 
shall  be  comforted,"  is  that  while  it 
speaks  directly  from  the  heart  of  the 
Master  to  the  world's  deepest  need,  it 
bears  no  necessary  relation  to  the  inner 
history  of  Jesus,  except  in  the  sense  that 
20 


Of  Those  That  Mourn. 

he  hath  borne  our  griefs  and  carried  our 
sorrows.  Such  an  impression  is  the 
result  of  our  religious  training  and  tradi- 
tions, which  dispose  us  to  substitute  the 
theological  Christ,  or N  the  ecclesiastical 
Christ,  for  the  human  Christ.  We  hes- 
itate to  construct  the  inner  spiritual  his- 
tory of  the  Master  in  terms  of  human 
experience,  and  thus  we  miss  much  of  the 
meaning,  and  of  the  comfort,  too,  of 
passages  such  as  the  one  before  us,  where 
the  blessing  of  comfort  is  pronounced 
upon  those  that  mourn.  In  this  Beati- 
tude, we  have  a  bit  of  the  inner  history 
of  Jesus,  the  full  meaning  of  which  cannot 
be  appreciated  without  reference  to  the 
one  that  precedes  it,  "Blessed  are  the 
poor  in  spirit;  for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven."  It  seems  strange  that  more 
than  one  careful  student  of  the  Beati- 
tudes should  fail  to  note  the  connection 
here,  contending  for  an  arrangement  dif- 
fering from  that  given  by  St. Matthew,  and 
insisting  that  the  Beatitude  of  the  Meek 
should  follow  that  of  the  Poor  in  Spirit. 
21 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

The  surface  resemblance  in  the  latter  case 
has  much  apparently  to  commend  it,  but 
when  we  understand  the  theme  of  the 
Beatitudes  to  be  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
the  connection  between  the  poor  in  spirit 
and  those  that  mourn  becomes  quite  close 
and  vital,  and  we  are  led  to  conclude  that 
the  order  given  is  the  true  one,  and  that 
St.  Matthew  has  correctly  reported  the 
original  utterance  of  our  Lord. 

THE  MISSION  OF  COMFORT. 

It  may  be  remembered  that  in  our 
previous  address,  we  took  the  ground 
that  when  Christ  said  "blessed  are  the 
poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom 
"of  Heaven,"  poverty  of  spirit  was  under- 
stood to  be  a  condition  of  inward  recep- 
tiveness,  which  of  its  very  nature  invites 
the  beginning  of  a  spiritual  process  known 
as  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  There  seems 
a  slight  confusion  of  thought  in  speaking 
of  the  Kingdom  as  a  process,  yet  such  it 
unquestionably  is.  It  is  both  a  spiritual 
state,  and  a  spiritual  process.  A  spiritual 
22 


Of  Those  That  Mourn. 

state,  in  that  it  is  the  invited  presence  and 
acknowledged  rule  of  God;  a  spiritual 
process,  in  that  not  until  every  power  and 
faculty  in  the  vast  region  of  man's  inner 
consciousness  is  brought  into  subjection 
to  that  rule  will  the  Kingdom  be  realized 
in  experience.  Incident  to  this  process 
of  the  unfolding  of  the  Kingdom,  or  rule 
and  presence  of  God  in  man's  spirit,  there 
is  pain  and  anguish,  sorrow  and  travail, 
yet,  be  the  process  as  mournful  as  it  will, 
there  is  divinest  comfort  in  the  vision  of 
the  ultimate  end  to  be  achieved,  for 
experience  worketh  hope,  and  hope  sees 
dimly  a  glory  that  shall  be  revealed  when 
the  "becoming  is  completed"  and  God  is 
all  in  all.  There  is  comfort,  too,  in  the 
reflection  that  the  Master  knew  no  exemp- 
tion from  the  law  that  we  must  through 
much  tribulation  enter  into  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,  and  we  have  the  assurance 
that  we  may  know  the  fellowship  of  his 
sufferings.  "We  have  not  an  high  priest 
that  cannot  be  touched  with  the  feeling 
of  our  infirmities,  but  was  in  all  points 

23 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

tempted  like  as  we  are."  As  the  writer 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  further 
recounts  the  history  of  Christ's  prepara- 
tion for  the  bestowal  of  sympathy,  how 
intimately  do  we  find  the  Master's  pov- 
erty of  spirit  related  to  the  pain  that 
attended  the  process  of  his  spiritual  un- 
folding, as  when  we  read  that  "in  the 
days  of  his  flesh  he  offered  up  prayers 
and  supplications,  with  strong  crying  and 
tears,  unto  Him  that  was  able  to  save 
him,  and  was  heard  in  that  he  feared," 
and  that  "though  he  was  a  son,  yet 
learned  he  obedience  by  the  things  that 
he  suffered."  'It  is  quite  true  that  we 
are  now  reading  these  passages  back 
into  the  Beatitude,  yet  if  the  Beati- 
tude in  setting  forth  the  law  of  the 
spiritual  life  faithfully  reflects  the  mind 
and  interprets  the  experience  of  Jesus, 
the  connection  between  the  blessedness 
of  the  poor  in  spirit  and  the  blessed- 
ness of  those  that  mourn  is  unmis- 
takable. The  tender  minor  into  which 
the  music  of  the  Beatitudes  sinks,  vi- 

24 


Of  Those  That  Mourn. 

brates  to  universal  human  need,  because 
it  is  a  chord  in  the  spiritual  conscious- 
ness of  him  who  offers  his  own  blessedness 
to  the  world.  Coleridge  declared  that  he 
knew  the  Bible  to  be,  inspired  because  it 
found  him.  How  truly  does  it  find  us 
here!  "Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,  for 
they  shall  be  comforted !  "  In  the  midst  of 
pain  inscrutable  and  grief  insupportable, 
under  the  crush  of  sorrow,  and  in  the 
shadow  of  death,  the  consolations  of  God 
are  voiced  from  human  lips,  and  there  is 
"beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for 
mourning,  and  the  garment  of  praise  for 
the  spirit  of  heaviness." 

IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  PARABLES. 

Assuming  that  there  is  a  connection, 
indeed,  an  intimate  relation,  between  the 
blessedness  of  those  that  mourn,  and  that 
poverty  of  spirit  in  answer  to  which  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  given,  we  shall 
find  in  several  of  the  parables  of  the  King- 
dom the  place  of  comfort  in  the  unfolding 
of  the  spiritual  life  from  within.  Later 

25 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

we  shall  speak  in  more  general  terms  of 
the  mission  of  comfort  in  the  disciplines 
of  life.  In  that  cluster  of  parables  which 
St.  Matthew  introduces  into  his  later 
narrative,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  set 
forth  under  a  variety  of  images,  which 
may  be  interpreted  either  objectively  of 
the  Church,  or  subjectively  of  the  soul  in 
its  relation  to  God.  It  is  in  the  latter 
sense  that  we  shall  view  them,  that  is,  as 
descriptive  of  the  spiritual  process  to 
which  reference  has  been  made.  The 
Hidden  Treasure  and  the  Pearl  of  Great 
Price  picturesquely  portray  the  intrinsic 
worth  of  the  Kingdom,  and  at  the  same 
time  imply  the  possibility  of  its  present 
possession.  The  Mustard  Seed,  the  Leav- 
en, and  the  Growing  Wheat,  are  descrip- 
tive of  a  process  insignificant  in  its  begin- 
ning, gradual  in  its  operation,  and  for  a 
long  time  doubtful  as  to  its  final  issue. 
When  the  poor  in  spirit,  aglow  with  the 
thought  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is 
indeed  theirs,  awake  to  the  realization 
that  this  Kingdom  in  its  inception  is 

26 


Of  Those  That  Mourn. 

meagre  to  the  point  of  insignificance,  that, 
in  fact,  it  is  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed, 
the  reflection  is  mournful  and  depress- 
ing. The  enthusiasm  that  accompanies 
the  purchase  of  the  field  wherein  the 
treasure  lies  buried,  or  the  first  possession 
of  the  priceless  pearl,  is  followed  by 
depression,  as  the  first  two  pictures  melt 
away  and  give  place  to  the  tiny  image  of 
insignificance.  But  the  mustard  seed  is 
only  apparently  insignificant.  It  tells  of 
life.  When  the  Master  declares  that  faith 
as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  may  remove 
mountains,  obviously  he  is  speaking  of 
vital,  not  meagre  faith;  and  the  soul 
mourning  over  the  smallness  of  the  begin- 
nings of  God's  work  within  takes  comfort 
in  the  thought  that  this  work,  in  obedi- 
ence to  its  own  inherent  law,  must  go  on 
till  the  vitalizing  process  is  complete. 
"By  and  by  it  waxeth  a  great  tree,  and 
the  fowls  of  the  air  take  refuge  under  the 
shadow  of  it."  The  parable  of  the  Leav- 
en deals  with  another  phase  of  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Kingdom  from  within.  A 

27 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

transmuting  principle  is  introduced  into 
the  unleavened  lump  of  human  character. 
Our  attention  is  now  fixed  upon  the  slow- 
ness, and,  so  to  speak,  the  painfulness  of 
a  process  by  which  human  nature  sub- 
mits to  this  transmuting  influence  work- 
ing silently,  and  from  within.  But  if  the 
process  be  slow  and  painful,  it  is  none  the 
less  persistent  and  effectual.  Again  we 
find  that  patience  worketh  experience, 
and  experience  hope,  for  ultimately  the 
silent  spiritual  forces  that  lie  concealed 
in  human  character  will  complete  their 
transforming  work.  The  whole  lump, 
whether  of  human  character  or  of  the 
social  order,  will  one  day  be  leavened,  and 
surely  there  is  infinite  comfort  in  such  an 
assurance. 

ARRESTED  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  parable  of  the  Growing  Wheat 
introduces  an  element  which  for  a  time 
seems  to  make  the  final  issue  doubtful. 
It  tells  of  the  sinister  design  of  an  enemy, 
who,  under  cover  of  night,  maliciously 

28 


Of  Those  That  Mourn. 

sows  tares  among  the  wheat.  This  ag- 
gressive and  personal  aspect  of  moral  evil, 
in  the  presence  of  which  human  nature 
feels  its  mournful  helplessness,  is  a  graph- 
ic picture  of  the  Kingdom  within  which  all 
of  us  instinctively  recognize.  "Surely," 
we  exclaim  with  the  husbandman  in  his 
dismay,  "an  enemy  hath  done  this!" 

Universal  experience  testifies  to  the 
havoc  that  some  power  not  ourselves  has 
wrought  in  even  the  best  of  us.  There 
is  comfort  for  those  that  mourn  in  such  a 
case.  Patience  must  have  her  perfect 
work.  The  parable  tells  of  the  ultimate 
destruction  of  the  evil,  the  final  triumph 
of  good.  These  parables  are  descriptive 
of  the  process  of  the  Kingdom  as  it  un- 
folds from  within,  yet  they  set  forth  but 
single  phases  of  that  process.  Again,  the 
Beatitude  of  Comfort  is  not  indifferent  to 
the  needs  of  the  spiritual  life  as  it  proceeds 
from  above  and  without.  In  the  con- 
versation with  Nicodemus,  the  mysteri- 
ousness  of  the  process  of  birth  into  the 
Kingdom  is  set  forth  significantly:  "the 

29 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou 
hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not 
tell  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it 
goeth,"  so  is  the  spiritual  process.  But  in 
his  farewell  discourse  another  aspect  is 
dwelt  upon,  the  painfulness  of  the  process 
issuing  in  a  heightened  happiness.  "A 
woman  when  she  is  in  travail  hath 
sorrow  because  her  hour  is  come,  but 
when  she  is  delivered  of  the  child  she 
remembereth  no  more  the  anguish  for  joy 
that  a  man  is  born  into  the  world." 
Christ's  use  of  this  figure,  in  close  connec- 
tion with  his  plain  words  concerning  his 
departure  and  return,  implies  his  own 
intimate  relation  to  the  new  birth.  The 
blessedness  of  comfort  could  not  be  stated 
more  strongly  or  more  beautifully. 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  SORROW. 

Our  study  of  this  Beatitude  would  be 
incomplete  if  we  confined  our  application 
of  it  to  the  growth  of  the  soul  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  Kingdom,  apart  from  the  cir- 
cumstances of  human  experience  that 

30 


Of  Those  That  Mourn. 

fashion  it  both  from  without  and  from 
within.  The  high  priest  that  can  be 
touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirm- 
ities has  opened  an  unfailing  source  of 
sympathy  for  the  tempted  and  tried,  for 
the  sin-burdened  and  the  grief -stricken, 
for  the  afflicted  and  distressed  in  mind, 
body  and  estate — sympathy  for  those  that 
sorrow,  comfort  for  those  that  mourn. 
But  the  sympathy  and  the  comfort  that 
meet  us  at  every  stage  of  human  vicissi- 
tude find  their  meaning  in  the  higher 
levels  of  spiritual  vision  to  which  they 
lead.  "Our  light  affliction,  which  is  but 
for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  more  and 
more  exceedingly  an  eternal  weight  of 
glory;  while  we  look  not  at  the  things 
which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which 
are  not  seen :  for  the  things  which  are  seen 
are  temporal;  but  the  things  which  are 
not  seen  are  eternal." 

CHRISTUS  CONSOLATOR. 

The  student  of  the  inner  life  of  Jesus 
doubtless  feels  an  instinctive  reluctance 

31 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

in  ascribing  to  the  content  of  his  Master's 
blessedness  the  spiritual  equivalent  of 
the  emotion  of  sorrow  named  in  the 
Beatitude,  fearing  lest  it  imply  a  peni- 
tence inconsistent  with  the  cherished 
tradition  of  his  sinlessness.  Neverthe- 
less, the  comfort  that  falls  to  the  lot  of 
those  that  mourn  must  have  been  his 
in  a  sense  not  figurative  but  real,  as  the 
Kingdom  of  God's  presence  and  rule, 
under  the  stress  and  pressure  of  tempta- 
tion, advanced  from  stage  to  stage  of  its 
inward  realization.  That  thus,  indeed, 
he  was  qualified  for  his  high-priestly 
function  of  sympathy,  is  clearly  shown  in 
the  passage  from  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, which  we  have  just  read.  "For 
we  have  not  a  high  priest  that  cannot  be 
touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirm- 
ities ;  but  one  that  hath  been  in  all  points 
tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin. 
Let  us  therefore  draw  near  with  boldness 
unto  the  throne  of  grace,  that  we  may 
receive  mercy,  and  may  find  grace  to  help 
in  time  of  need."  The  bestowal  of  com- 

32 


Of  Those  That  Mourn. 

fort  has  become  in  a  most  intimate  and 
peculiar  sense  the  mission  of  the  Incar- 
nate Son,  who,  at  all  points,  has  related 
himself  to  human  need.  "Who  in  the 
days  of  his  flesh,  offered  up  prayers 
and  supplications  with  strong  crying  and 
tears  unto  Him  that  was  able  to  save 
him  from  death,  and  was  heard  for  his 
godly  fear."  Himself  once  a  recipient  of 
comfort,  he  is  now  divinely  qualified  for 
the  bestowal  of  sympathy ;  to  disclose  the 
meaning  of  suffering  and  the  ministry  of 
pain;  to  reveal  to  those  of  the  sons  of 
earth  who  travail  and  are  heavy-laden 
the  truth  of  the  human  heart  of  God. 


33 


OF  THE  MEEK. 


"Blessed  are  the  Meek:  for  they 
shall  inherit  the  Earth." 


III. 

OF  THE  MEEK. 

THE  order  in  which  the  Beatitudes 
are  reported  by  St.  Matthew  is  not 
arbitrary  or  accidental.  On  the  contrary, 
there  is  evidence  of  the  presence  of  a  spir- 
itual sequence  which  is  both  profoundly 
suggestive  in  itself,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
indicative  of  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  law  that  governs  the  unfolding  of  the 
inner  life.  We  have  already  traced  the 
connection  between  the  blessedness  of  the 
poor  in  spirit  and  the  blessedness  pro- 
nounced upon  those  that  mourn.  It  will 
be  seen  that  from  these  the  Beatitude  of 
the  Meek  follows  as  a  natural  corollary, 
the  steps  of  transition  being  clear  and 
unmistakable.  If  poverty  of  spirit  im- 
plies an  unsatisfied  spiritual  receptive- 
ness,  and  grief  and  pain  are  incident  to 

37 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

the  quest  for  God,  then  something  akin 
to  meekness  must  ensue  when  the  soul  is 
ushered  into  the  presence  of  God.  "For 
thus  saith  the  high  and  lofty  One  that 
inhabiteth  eternity,  whose  name  is  holy: 
I  dwell  in  the  high  and  holy  place,  with 
him  also  that  is  of  an  humble  and  contrite 
spirit."  There  can  be  no  better  way  in 
which  to  prepare  our  minds  for  a  spiritual 
appreciation  of  the  Beatitude  of  the  Meek 
than  by  tracing  more  closely  this  inti- 
mate relation,  which  will  greatly  influence 
the  conclusions  we  shall  finally  reach 
regarding  the  nature  of  meekness  and  the 
meaning  of  its  temporal  reward. 

THE  SOUL'S  PILGRIMAGE. 

When,  amid  the  material  satisfactions 
of  life,  man  is  conscious  of  unutterable 
loneliness,  and  discovers  that  the  inward 
peace  which  he  craves  can  be  realized  only 
in  the  companionship" of  God,  it  may  be 
that  his  spirit  sets  out  on  the  definite  quest 
for  God,  and,  unless  his  experience  is  quite 
exceptional,  his  feet  follow  one  or  another 

38 


Of  the  Meek. 

of  several  well-trodden  paths.  It  may  be 
the  path  of  penitence,  which  leads 
through  the  land  where  the  famine  is, 
when,  having  spent  all  in  the  world's 
service,  he  calmly  turns  his  back  upon  the 
old  life,  and  sets  out  for  his  Father's  home. 
It  may  be  the  path  of  a  nameless  sorrow, 
when  the  burden  of  an  affliction  which  is 
not  light  or  momentary  presses  with  a 
weight  of  increasing  bitterness  upon  the 
heart,  often  a  mere  foot-path  leading 
down  into  the  valley  where  the  shadows 
lie,  scarce  visible  in  the  gathering  gloom. 
Or,  perchance,  it  is  the  slow  and  painful 
ascent  of  some  dimly  discerned  duty  in- 
volving sacrifice,  wherein  the  soul  must 
rise  on  stepping  stones  of  its  dead  self  to 
higher  things.  Be  the  conditions  of  its  pil- 
grimage what  they  may,  it  will  be  seen  that 
when  the  path  of  the  spiritual  life  emer- 
ges into  God's  clear  light,  and  the  soul 
awakens  to  a  vision  of  the  lofty  One, 
man's  spirit  clothes  itself  with  meek- 
ness as  with  a  garment,  for  meekness 
is  the  soul's  attitude  towards  Him  who 

39 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

hath  blessed  its  poverty  with  his  riches, 
comforted  its  mourning  with  his  love, 
and  now  rewards  its  lowliness  with  his 
abiding  presence.  We  shall  presently 
return  to  the  line  of  interpretation  sug- 
gested by  the  interdependence  of  these 
opening  Beatitudes. 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  BEATITUDE 

We  may  now  profitably  interrupt  our 
analysis  to  reflect  briefly  upon  the  Beati- 
tude of  the  Meek  in  its  relation  to  origin- 
ality. An  ordinary  reference  Bible  re- 
minds the  most  casual  reader  that  the 
third  Beatitude,  "Blessed  are  the  meek 
for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth,"  is,  with 
the  slightest  possible  variation,  a  direct 
quotation  from  the  Old  Testament,  where 
we  read  in  the  thirty-seventh  Psalm,  "for 
the  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth,  and  shall 
delight  themselves  in  the  abundance  of 
peace. ' '  Mo  reover ,  to  a  greater  or  less  de- 
gree it  would  be  possible  to  parallel  the 
other  Beatitudes  from  Hebrew  literature, 
and  the  same  course  might  be  followed  with 

40 


Of  the  Meek. 

approximate  results  with  reference  to  the 
petitions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  very 
much  else  in  what  we  have  been  taught 
to  regard  as  Christ's  most  distinctive 
teaching;  indeed,  a  study  of  non-Christian 
sources  has  also  been  found  fruitful  in 
the  establishment  of  such  parallelisms. 
In  view  of  this,  it  is  well  to  keep  in  mind 
the  precise  nature  of  Christ's  originality, 
and  to  remember  the  distinction  between 
the  relative  and  the  absolute  in  his  dis- 
closure of  truth.  Much  of  Christ's  teach- 
ing was  relative  as  regards  its  material, 
absolute  as  regards  the  employment  of 
that  material.  There  is  no  title  more 
truly  descriptive  of  him  in  relation 
to  the  truth  he  taught  than  the  title  "The 
Master."  The  separate  notes  in  the 
Divine  Octave  had  been  struck  repeatedly 
in  the  course  of  the  ages ;  never  before  had 
they  been  woven  into  a  single  harmony. 
When  the  last  word  concerning  the  paral- 
lelisms has  been  spoken,  the  fact  remains 
that  the  Master  formulated  the  Beati- 
tudes, grouped  them  in  their  remarkable 

41 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

sequence,  and  crowned  them  with  that 
spiritual  distinctiveness  which  gives  them 
their  essential  character. 

THE  QUALITY  OF  MEEKNESS. 

In  interpreting  the  principle  of  our 
present  Beatitude,  and  attempting  to 
unfold  its  deeper  meanings,  let  us  first 
inquire  the  precise  quality  of  meek- 
ness; then  examine  scriptural  instances 
of  it;  and  finally  seek  to  understand  the 
sense  in  which  it  may  be  said  of  those  who 
acquire  it  that  they  shall  possess  the 
earth.  The  precise  nature  of  meekness 
is  greatly  confused  in  the  popular  mind 
by  reason  of  familiar  misrepresentations 
of  it.  The  common  impression  of  meek- 
ness is  that  it  is  but  another  name  for 
weakness.  This  view  seems  to  find  a 
certain  support  in  such  passages  as  the 
following  from  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount : 
"I  say  unto  you  that  ye  resist  not  him 
that  is  evil,  but  whoso  smiteth  thee  on  thy 
right  cheek  turn  to  him  the  other  also. 
And  if  any  man  go  to  law  with  thee,  and 

42 


Of  the  Meek. 

take  away  thy  cloak,  let  him  have  thy 
coat  also;  and  whosoever  shall  compel 
thee  to  go  with  him  one  mile,  go  with  him 
twain."  This,  as  we  know,  was  the  Mas- 
ter's comment  on  thevlaw  of  retaliation, 
and  it  seems  to  give  color  to  that  mis- 
conception of  meekness  with  which  we  take 
issue.  The  truth  is,  however,  that  this 
passage  has  no  reference  to  the  quality  of 
meekness,  but  is  illustrative  of  the  substi- 
tution of  the  law  of  love  for  the  law  of 
retaliation,  and  sets  forth  the  lengths  to 
which  love  should  go  in  its  mission  of 
service.  It  implies  spiritual  strength  and 
greatness,  not  insipidity  and  weakness, 
and  may  be  understood  as  a  working 
principle  by  reference  to  the  life  of  Christ, 
of  which  love  was  the  supreme  motive. 
It  is  small  wonder  that  meekness  so  inter- 
preted should  lend  itself  to  caricature  and 
travesty.  Happily,  the  religion  of  the 
Man  of  Nazareth  is  reverting  to  its  earlier 
type,  and  the  unreal  and  effeminate  fea- 
tures which  have  so  long  concealed  its 
vigor  and  its  strength,  and  have  done  so 

43 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

much  to  dishonor  and  discredit  it,  are 
rapidly  undergoing  transformation,  and 
giving  place  to  an  image  that  will  one  day 
be  lifted  up  and  draw  all  men  unto  it. 
"Meekness,"  wrote  Archbishop  Trench, 
"is  not  in  man's  outward  behavior  only, 
nor  yet  in  his  relation  to  his  fellowman. 
Rather  it  is  an  inwrought  grace  of  the 
soul,  and  its  exercises  are  first  and  chiefly 
towards  God."  This  admirable  defini- 
tion of  meekness  will  be  found  to  harmo- 
nize absolutely  with  the  scriptural  view 
of  it,  which  consistently  makes  the  sphere 
of  its  action  man's  Godward  rather  than 
his  manward  relations.  The  soul,  brought 
face  to  face  with  God,  becomes  lowly  in 
its  own  clear  sight.  It  no  longer  meas- 
ures itself  by  itself,  nor  yet  by  the  stan- 
dard of  other  men.  In  the  readjustment 
of  its  relations  with  the  world  its  bearing 
may  become  full  of  tenderness  and  pity 
and  gentle  consideration,  but  these  qual- 
ities will  be  the  expression  of  a  truer  esti- 
mate of  human  values,  a  juster  sense  of  the 
meaning  of  life  and  its  relationships. 

44 


Of  the  Meek. 

"Then  thought  I  to  understand  this:  but 
it  was  too  hard  for  me,  until  I  went  into 
the  sanctuary  of  God :  then  understood  I 
the  end  of  these  men." 

EXAMPLES  OF  MEEKNESS. 

With  these  thoughts  in  mind  we  turn 
to  the  examples  of  the  meekness  thus 
defined  which  meet  us  in  the  great  text- 
book of  spiritual  biography,  the  Bible. 
We  have  been  taught  to  regard  the  found- 
er of  the  Hebrew  nation  as  the  supreme 
embodiment  of  meekness,  and  doubtless 
we  have  often  wondered  wherein  he  actu- 
ally exemplified  it,  for  every  incident  of 
his  life  reveals  his  character  in  quite  the 
opposite  light.  The  fault,  of  course,  lies 
with  us,  for  we  have  brought  to  the  case 
that  preconception  of  meekness  which 
views  it  as  a  trait  of  disposition  having 
its  characteristic  action  in  a  manward 
direction.  The  Hebrew  patriot  who 
proudly  disdains  the  royal  ancestry  that 
would  claim  him;  who  with  soul  aflame 
hurls  an  offending  Egyptian  to  his  death, 

45 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

escaping  the  consequence  of  his  act  by 
flight,  only  to  return  to  effect  the  liber- 
ation of  his  people  by  a  prowess  born  of 
the  conviction  of  a  heaven-given  mis- 
sion, is  no  type  of  maudlin  meekness. 
Whether  we  view  him  as  prophet  or  chief- 
tain, leader  or  lawgiver,  the  history  of  the 
Exodus,  which  is  but  his  own  story,  writ- 
ten large,  abounds  in  the  material  of  a 
personality  singularly  devoid  of  the  ele- 
ments of  traditional  meekness.  But 
when  this  remarkable  man  is  viewed  in 
the  light  of  his  relations  with  the  Unseen, 
as  the  servant  or  Minister  of  God,  the 
difficulties  are  all  cleared  away,  and  we 
can  readily  understand  that  the  verdict 
of  spiritual  history  is  true.  This  quality — 
one  had  almost  said  this  faculty — so  ex- 
emplified in  the  Hebrew  prophet,  finds  its 
most  perfect  expression  in  the  Man  of 
Nazareth.  This  is  significantly  shown 
at  nearly  every  turn  as  the  Perfect  Life 
unfolds,  but  perhaps  nowhere  more  ex- 
pressly than  in  that  passage  in  St.  Mat- 
thew, where  our  Lord  describes  himself 

46 


Of  the  Meek. 

as  meek  and  lowly  in  heart,  the  immediate 
occasion  of  which  was  his  denunciation 
of  the  cities  that  had  witnessed  his  most 
mighty  works,  and  yet  coldly  rejected  his 
claims.  At  the  very  moment  when  he 
thanks  his  Divine  Father  that  the  truth 
is  hidden  from  the  wise  and  prudent  and 
made  known  unto  babes,  he  essays  to 
offer  himself  to  the  sorrow -burdened 
world  as  the  source  of  rest  and  peace, 
"because  he  is  meek  and  lowly  in  heart." 
If  time  permitted,  the  principle  stated 
might  be  abundantly  illustrated  from  the 
gospel  records,  but  we  must  now  pass  to 
the  final  division  of  our  subject. 

THE  HERITAGE  OF  THE  EARTH. 

It  remains  for  us  briefly  to  define  the 
sense  in  which  the  meekness  thus  de- 
scribed may  be  said  to  realize  the  tem- 
poral promise  of  the  Beatitude.  "The 
meek  shall  inherit  the  earth. ' '  The  bless- 
edness of  the  meek  turns  unmistakably 
upon  the  adjustment  of  an  earthward 
relationship,  notwithstanding  that  the 

47 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

principle  of  that  adjustment  is  essen- 
tially spiritual.  This  Beatitude  of  the 
Meek  is  more  truly  Messianic  in  character 
than  any  of  its  companion  Beatitudes, 
and  doubtless  it  spoke  to  the  heart  of 
those  who  heard  it  in  terms  more  defi- 
nite, and  with  a  meaning  more  intelligible, 
than  did  any  of  the  others  in  the  octave. 
The  inheritance  of  the  land  had  been  the 
goal  of  their  hopes,  and  now  the  wider 
vision  of  the  possession  of  the  earth  made 
its  subtle  appeal  to  every  instinct  of  their 
national  character. 

It  may  be  said,  first,  that  the  Beatitude 
is  remotely  true.  The  future  tense  is 
used.  The  principle  of  a  spiritual  evolu- 
tion by  its  selective  processes  is  making 
steadily  for  the  production  of  a  spiritual 
type  which  will  ultimately  possess  the 
earth — a  type  that  will  delight  itself  in  the 
abundance  of  peace  in  that  far-off  time 
when  men  shall  beat  their  swords  into 
plowshares  and  their  spears  into  prun- 
ing hooks,  and  conflict  shall  be  no  more. 
If  meekness,  as  defined,  is  a  condition  of 

48 


Of  the  Meek, 

the  divine  indwelling,  the  Beatitude  may 
be  understood  as  prophetic  of  that  time. 
But  such  an  interpretation  of  the  tem- 
poral promise  is  open  to  the  criticism  that 
it  is  as  unreal  as  it  &  remote,  and  in  this 
light  it  would  have  been  meaningless  to 
those  to  whom  it  was  first  given,  as  it  is 
relatively  meaningless  to  us.  Meekness, 
again,  may  be  understood  as  a  temper  of 
mind  that  enables  its  possessor  to  enter 
into  nature's  processes,  and  master  her 
secrets,  for  the  abnegation  of  self,  in  the 
spirit  of  lowliness  and  patience,  condi- 
tions every  search  for  truth,  as  when  the 
gifted  Newton  confessed  himself  but  a 
child,  gathering  shells  upon  the  seashore, 
while  the  great  ocean  of  truth  spread  out 
in  mystery  before  him.  Then,  again,  we 
may  find  an  explanation  of  the  promise  in 
the  meaning  that  turns  upon  the  term 
"possession."  Possession,  properly  un- 
derstood, is  not  a  thing  of  title-deeds  or 
landmarks,  which  impose  limitations. 
Nothing  can  be  more  foreign  to  the  dis- 
position of  the  truly  meek  than  the  anx- 

49 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

ieties  that  attach  to  ownership.  Posses- 
sion is  one  thing,  property  another.  A 
lovely  picture  may  be  the  possession  of 
the  soul  to  whom  its  beauty  is  revealed, 
a  book  the  possession  of  the  mind  that 
has  mastered  its  meaning,  while  in  each 
case  ownership  may  lie  in  another  direc- 
tion. An  individual,  burdened  with  a  heri- 
tage of  golden  wealth  and  leaden  instincts, 
once  invited  a  poet  to  saunter  with  him 
through  his  vast  domains.  "The  land 
is  mine,"  affirmed  the  rich  man,  compla- 
cently. "Truly,  but  the  landscape  is 
mine,"  replied  the  poet.  This  is  the 
key  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Apostle's 
paradox,  "As  having  nothing,  and  yet 
possessing  all  things."  Says  a  thought- 
ful writer:  "in  the  language  of  the  world 
the  expression  'it  is  mine'  means  this 
thing  belongs  to  me,  and  to  none  else ;  in 
the  language  of  truth,  'it  is  mine'  means 
'I  draw  from  this  thing  the  good  it  is  cap- 
able of  imparting.'"  He  continues:  "the 
force,  the  power,  the  knowledge,  the  vir- 
tue of  things,  cannot  be  said  to  belong  to 

50 


Of  the  Meek. 

him  who  has  rights  over  them  which  he 
has  never  exercised.  They  belong  to 
him  who  derives  benefit  from  them.  They 
belong  not  so  much  to  him  who  owns 
them,  as  to  him  who  ^ias  made  them  his 
own."  Similarly,  the  heritage  of  the 
earth  by  the  meek-spirited  may  be  under- 
stood as  ultimately  in  the  nature  of  a 
spiritual  acquisition.  It  is  for  a  time 
veiled  in  material  symbolism,  and  made 
attractive  by  the  subtle  power  of  illu- 
sion, as  an  expression  of  the  principle, 
"that  is  not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but 
that  which  is  natural,  and  afterward  that 
which  is  spiritual." 


51 


OF  THE 
QUEST  FOR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


"Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and 
thirst  after  Righteousness:  for 
they  shall  be  filled." 


OF  THE  QUEST  FOR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

THAT  the  Beatitudes  are  both  mutu- 
ally related  and  individually  dis- 
tinct constitutes  at  once  their  inspiration 
and  their  charm.  We  have  already  found 
that  there  runs  through  them  the  thread 
of  a  remarkable  spiritual  sequence,  while 
at  the  same  time  we  have  seen  that  a 
careful  study  of  the  inner  content  of  each 
separate  Beatitude  discloses  a  fresh  prin- 
ciple, and  marks  a  new  stage  in  the  soul's 
advance  on  the  path  of  the  perfect  life. 
The  dramatic  arrangement  of  the  music 
of  the  Beatitudes,  which  otherwise  might 
be  forgotten,  so  natural  are  the  transi- 
tions, is  enforced  in  the  present  instance 
by  a  change  of  key,  which  the  spiritual 
ear  immediately  detects,  and  which  har- 
monizes perfectly  with  the  opening 

55 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

chords.  In  other  words,  the  first  three 
Beatitudes,  which  are  more  intimately 
related  in  thought  than  are  any  of  the 
others,  are  descriptive  of  the  soul  in  its 
more  passive  moods,  while  the  change  of 
key  which  distinguishes  the  fourth  Beat- 
itude, indicates  an  active  and  energetic 
disposition  of  man's  spiritual  nature, 
whose  intensity  and  positiveness  can  be 
expressed  adequately  only  in  the  lan- 
guage of  hunger  and  thirst. 

THE  COMPARISON  AND    CONTRAST. 

When  the  psalmist  cries  out,  "Like  as 
the  hart  desire th  the  water-brooks,  so 
longeth  my  soul  after  thee,  O  God:  my 
soul  is  a  thirst  for  God,  yea,  even  for  the 
living  God,  when  shall  I  come  to  appear 
before  the  presence  of  God  ?"  he  interprets 
the  quality  of  the  first  Beatitude,  where  a 
blessing  is  pronounced  upon  the  poor  in 
spirit,  for  the  thirst  is  for  God  rather  than 
for  God's  righteousness — in  fact  the  cry  is 
but  a  vague  yearning  for  the  satisfaction  of 
an  intellectual  or  spiritual  craving,  with 

56 


Of  the  Qwst  for  Righteousness. 

no  moral  quality  whatsoever.  The  next 
stage  is  reached  when  the  moral  element 
is  introduced;  when  the  sense  of  guilt, 
which  hides  the  face  of  God,  is  consoled 
with  the  blessedness  of  those  that 
mourn.  The  third  stage  follows  when 
penitence  has  done  its  work  in  the  soul, 
and  the  high  and  lofty  One  takes  His 
abode  with  him  who  is  of  an  humble  and 
contrite  spirit.  But  as  neither  soul  pov- 
erty, nor  soul  sorrow,  nor  the  lowliest 
meekness,  may  claim  affinity  with  God  on 
moral  grounds,  being  merely  passive 
states  incident  to  the  soul's  contempla- 
tion of  God,  the  fourth  Beatitude  depicts 
the  next  act  in  the  unfolding  drama  of 
man's  inner  life,  substitutes  an  active 
disposition  for  a  passive  state,  and  hence- 
forth the  quest  for  God  becomes  an  im- 
mortal hunger  and  thirst  for  God's  right- 
eousness. 

THE  ACTIVE  AND  PASSIVE  ELEMENTS. 

Nowhere   in   Holy  Scripture  may  we 
find  the  active  and  passive  elements  of 

57 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

man's  spiritual  experience  portrayed  with 
greater  vividness  or  placed  in  stronger 
contrast  than  in  the  familiar  history  of 
the  patriarch  Jacob.  His  dream  at  Be- 
thel grew  out  of  loneliness  or  spiritual 
poverty,  while  the  radiant  ladder  reach- 
ing to  the  skies,  with  the  angels  of  God 
ascending  and  descending  upon  it,  sym- 
bolized God's  answer  to  the  yearning  for 
communion.  The  lonely  Jacob's  waking 
reflection,  "how  terrible  is  this  place,  this 
is  none  other  than  the  house  of  God,  this 
is  the  gate  of  heaven,"  illustrates  the 
third  element  in  the  passive  state ;  that  of 
lowly  humbleness  of  heart.  These  pas- 
sive impressions  had  no  special  moral 
quality,  yet  they  deepened  the  conscious- 
ness of  God,  and  brought  peace,  and  the 
spirit  of  trust  and  submission.  More 
than  twenty  years  later  the  moral  crisis 
came,  when  returning  from  his  lengthened 
exile  the  supplanter  wrestled  with  an 
unseen  antagonist  beside  the  murmuring 
Jabbok  until  the  daybreak.  "I  will  not 
let  thee  go  except  thou  bless  me, ' '  was  the 

58 


Of  the  Quest  for  Righteousness. 

language  of  a  spiritual  craving  which  no 
radiant  dream  of  peace  or  vision  of  reconcil- 
iation could  appease,  "Tell  me  thy  name" 
was  equivalent  to  "Show  me  thy  right- 
eousness." The  closing  touch  in  the 
story,  "And  he  blessed  him  there,"  re- 
minds us  that  then,  as  now,  those  who 
hunger  and  thirst  for  righteousness  will 
not  be  sent  empty  away. 

THE  DEFINITENESS  OF  THE  BEATITUDE. 

Besides  revealing  an  active  disposition 
of  the  soul,  the  Beatitude  is  significant  on 
account  of  its  definiteness.  No  atmos- 
phere of  vague  mysticism  surrounds  and 
obscures  it.  The  blessing  is  not  pro- 
nounced upon  the  instinctive  yearning 
for  God,  but  upon  those  who  are  in  quest 
of  righteousness.  Elsewhere  when  the 
Kingdom  of  God  is  set  forth  as  the  goal 
of  man's  seeking,  the  Master  adds,  "and 
His  righteousness,"  lest  the  term  should 
be  misleading.  This,  together  with  the 
fact  that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  an 
extended  commentary  upon  the  essential 

59 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

meaning  of  righteousness,  clothes  the  cen- 
tral thought  of  the  Beatitude  with  a 
defmiteness  which  makes  it  clearly  intel- 
ligible. In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
both  tables  of  the  ancient  law  are  re- 
viewed with  reference  to  a  spiritual  ex- 
position of  righteousness,  wherein  right- 
eousness is  shown  to  consist  of  right  re- 
lations toward  God  and  towards  man,  and 
the  motive  of  the  fulfilling  of  this  right- 
eousness is  "that  ye  may  be  the  children 
of  your  Father  which  is  in  Heaven."  To 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  is 
to  yearn  to  realize  that  which  God  in  His 
inmost  being  is,  which  is  ultimately  dis- 
covered to  be  love.  But  love,  again,  is 
rescued  from  vagueness  by  being  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  righteousness,  as  it  is 
exemplified  in  acts  of  obedience.  "If  ye 
love  me,  keep  my  commandments."  God 
is  not  only  mercy,  pity,  and  tenderness, 
but  equally  justice,  goodness,  and  truth; 
in  a  word,  He  is  essential  righteousness. 
And  there  has  never  yet  been  a  time  in 
the  spiritual  history  of  men  when  it  has 

60 


Of  the  Quest  for  Righteousness. 

not  been  imperative  to  insist  that  a  true 
quest  for  God  is  equally  a  quest  for  right- 
eousness. 

THE    PRINCIPLE    O*N  THE    BEATITUDE. 

With  these  thoughts  in  mind,  let  us 
turn  to  the  principle  of  the  Beatitude, 
asking  ourselves  first  the  meaning  of  hun- 
ger and  thirst  in  the  economy  of  the  spir- 
itual life;  next,  the  sense  in  which  pro- 
vision is  made  for  the  satisfaction  of 
man's  craving  for  righteousness;  and 
finally,  the  application  of  the  principle  to 
our  own  spiritual  needs.  In  answer  to 
our  first  question,  touching  the  function 
of  hunger  and  thirst  in  the  economy  of 
the  spiritual  life,  we  turn  naturally  to 
the  analogy  of  the  physical  life  for  illus- 
tration. There  we  find  the  instinct  of 
hunger  and  thirst  to  be  part  of  nature's 
provision  for  the  preservation  of  life. 
Life  consists  not  only  in  correspondence 
with  environment,  but  in  the  ability  of 
the  organism  to  nourish  and  sustain  itself 
from  its  environment,  virtually  to  turn 

61 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

the  stones  into  bread  to  maintain  life. 
Lest  this  basic  principle  be  lost  sight  of, 
nature  affixes  her  penalties  of  pain  and 
suffering  and  death.  The  pangs  of  hun- 
ger and  thirst  are  indicative  both  of  phys- 
ical health  and  of  man's  dependence  upon 
the  external  order,  and  these  instincts  are 
universal  in  their  sway.  Now,  the  world 
of  nature  is  but  a  type  and  symbol  of  the 
world  of  spirit,  and  there  are  instincts  of 
man's  spiritual  nature  as  absolutely  de- 
pendent upon  an  external  order  as  are 
hunger  and  thirst  in  the  physical  realm. 
The  instinct  for  God,  the  thirst  for  immor- 
tality, are  part  of  the  constitution  of 
man's  spiritual  nature,  to  which  the  his- 
tory of  religion  bears  witness,  and  the 
thirst  for  goodness  is  as  age-old  and  uni- 
versal as  the  thirst  for  immortality  or  for 
God.  All  this  is  familiar  to  the  point  of 
being  commonplace,  yet  it  bears  so  direct- 
ly upon  our  thought  that  we  cannot  afford 
to  pass  it  by,  or  to  overlook  its  connec- 
tion with  our  present  Beatitude.  Spiritual 
hunger  and  thirst  are  incentives  to  the 

62 


Of  the  Quest  for  Righteousness. 

assimilation  of  the  nutriment  of  the  spir- 
itual life  in  the  external  spiritual  order. 
The  shame  that  attaches  to  wrong-doing, 
sorrow  and  remorse  for  sin,  are  signs  of 
moral  health,  while  hunger  and  thirst  for 
goodness  are  still  more  hopeful  and  more 
blessed  signs.  Where  they  are  absent  or 
quiescent,  the  light  that  is  in  us  is  dark- 
ness, and  how  great  is  that  darkness! 
Yet  they  exist  potentially  in  all  men.  To 
awaken  them,  or  to  stir  them  into  in- 
creased activity,  was  the  mission  of  the 
Son  of  Man,  who  denned  even  their  un- 
satisfied presence  as  a  state  of  blessed- 
ness. 

THE  DIVINE  PROVISION. 

We  are  now  led  to  inquire  the  sense  in 
which  God  may  be  said  to  have  made 
provision  for  the  satisfaction  of  man's 
hunger  for  goodness.  "Blessed  are  they 
which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after  right- 
eousness," declared  the  Master.  Why? 
Because  "they  shall  be  filled."  The  ex- 
istence of  the  yearning  is  prophetic  of  its 

63 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

ultimate  complete  fulfillment,  but  when, 
and  where,  and  how?  However  far  short 
of  its  actual  realization  the  Christian  in 
his  experience  may  fall,  there  can  be  but 
one  answer  to  the  question  of  the  when  and 
where,  and  that  is  here  and  now,  that  is, 
in  this  present  life.  But  when  the  third 
question,  How?  is  raised,  the  voices  of 
our  accredited  teachers  are  singularly 
at  variance.  No  impartial  student  of  the 
Gospel  narratives  questions  that  Christ 
attained  a  standard  of  righteousness  to 
which  no  less  a  term  than  absolute  can 
be  applied.  In  what  true  sense  can  that 
righteousness  be  said  to  be  related  to  us, 
and  we  to  it?  The  most  precious  philos- 
sophy  of  Christian  experience  turns  upon 
that  question.  "This  is  the  name  where- 
by he  shall  be  called,"  so  read  the  ancient 
prophecy,  "The  Lord  our  righteousness." 
In  what  valid  sense  is  this  true  of  Christ 
in  his  relation  to  us  ?  Certainly  not  in  that 
unreal  and  fictitious  sense  in  which  we 
have  been  taught  that  Christ's  righteous- 
ness is  imputed  to  us,  a  theory  for  which 

64 


Of  the  Quest  for  Righteousness. 

the  interpreters  of  St.  Paul  were  largely 
responsible.  For  if  the  Incarnation  be 
understood  as  the  historic  fulfillment  of 
the  ideal  and  fact  of  righteousness  in  hu- 
man experience,  then  righteousness  ceases 
to  be  an  abstraction,  and  in  some  deep 
sense  we  may  conceive  it  as  related  to  the 
needs  of  man's  inner  life,  to  the  hunger 
and  thirst  of  man's  spiritual  nature.  We 
may  even  go  a  step  further,  and  speak  of 
Christ's  imparted  righteousness,  which 
description  brings  it  very  near  to  the 
terms  in  which  Christ  himself  expressed  it. 
"Jesus  said  unto  them:  I  am  the  Bread  of 
Life;  he  that  cometh  to  me  shall  never 
hunger,  and  he  that  believeth  in  me  shall 
never  thirst.  I  am  the  Living  Bread  that 
came  down  from  heaven;  if  any  man  eat 
of  this  Bread  he  shall  live  forever."  The 
Jews  of  his  day  esteemed  this  a  hard  say- 
ing, and  many  of  them  on  account  of  it 
severed  their  relations  with  him.  It  is 
likewise  incomprehensible  to  us,  yet  it  is 
the  central  truth  of  the  Christian  religion. 
To  receive  Christ  into  our  spirits,  to  assim- 

65 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

ilate  his  righteousness  by  the  reception 
of  the  living  principle  that  animated  it, 
to  grow  up  into  his  spiritual  likeness,  is 
at  once  the  inspiration  and  the  privilege 
of  the  Christian  life. 

THE  APPLICATION  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE. 

This  brings  us  to  our  closing  thought, 
the  application  of  the  principle  to  hu- 
man condition.  The  spiritual  environ- 
ment to  which  our  craving  for  righteous- 
ness points  being  Christ,  the  Living 
Bread,  or  Living  Water,  for  the  terms 
are  used  interchangeably,  what  means  are 
to  be  used  for  the  awakening  of  the  sense 
of  spiritual  hunger  or  spiritual  thirst, 
without  which  the  spiritual  life  declines? 
The  analogy  of  the  physical  life  is  sug- 
gestive, and  may  furnish  a  hint  or  two 
that  may  be  neither  unreal  nor  fanciful. 
Atmosphere  is  necessary  to  physical 
health,  exercise  to  physical  growth,  and 
these  conduce  to  the  encouragement  of  an 
appetite  and  relish  for  food,  without 

66 


Of  the  Quest  for  Righteousness. 

which  health  is  impossible.  It  is  said  of 
an  invalid  who  came  to  our  valley  that 
she  wrote  to  her  friends  in  her  eastern 
home  that  no  lovelier  spot  on  earth  could 
be  found,  that  friends  were  kind  and  the 
surroundings  ideal,  and  that  she  knew  she 
would  soon  get  well  if  only  she  could  have 
an  appetite.  Spiritual  invalidism  amid 
most  favorable  surroundings  is  a  familiar 
and  pathetic  spectacle.  To  awaken  or 
encourage  a  relish  for  spiritual  things  is 
fundamental  to  spiritual  health.  The 
pure  atmosphere  of  holy  living,  the  re- 
creative exercises  of  Christian  service,  all 
conduce  towards  that  end,  but  the  symp- 
tom of  improvement  is  the  appetite. 
Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness.  There  is  that 
in  the  spiritual  environment  which  makes 
for  the  soul's  nutrition  and  growth.  The 
Living  Bread  that  came  down  from  Heav- 
en is  offered  freely  to  all,  the  living  foun- 
tain ever  pours  forth  its  life-giving 
streams,  for  Christ,  the  same  yesterday 
and  to-day  and  forever,  still  cries  out  to  the 

67 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

craving  souls  of  men:  "He  that  cometh  to 
me  shall  never  hunger,  and  he  that  believ- 
eth  on  me  shall  never  thirst." 


THE  SACRAMENTAL  BREAD. 

No  discussion  of  the  Beatitude  of  the 
Quest  for  Righteousness  would  be  com- 
plete without  some  reference  to  the  great 
symbolic  act  with  which  the  Redeemer 
closed  his  ministry,  when,  "on  the  night 
in  which  he  was  betrayed,  he  took  bread 
and  brake  it,  saying  'This  is  My  Body 
which  is  given  for  you :  do  this  in  remem- 
brance of  Me.'  "  It  is  the  custom  of 
Anglican  writers  to  dwell  with  satisfac- 
tion upon  the  philosophy  of  the  real 
spiritual  Presence  in  the  sacramental 
feast,  as  infinitely  superior  both  to  the 
empty  memorialism  of  the  theory  of  the 
Protestant  bodies  and  to  the  crude  mate- 
rialism of  the  teaching  of  the  Church  of 
Rome.  The  doctrine  of  the  real  spirit- 
ual Presence  is  without  doubt  close  to  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  but  the  narrowness 

68 


Of  the  Quest  for  Righteousness. 

with  which  it  is  held  has  a  distinct  tend- 
ency to  undo  its  lofty  meaning,  and  even 
to  falsify  it.  Christ  is  present  in  the 
sacrament  of  the  altar  only  as  he  is 
present  in  the  Church, which  is  his  body, 
and  in  Christian  consciousness,  which  is 
his  sanctuary.  We  have  found  that 
early  in  his  ministry  he  declared  himself 
to  be  the  Living  Bread  that  came  down 
from  Heaven,  and  that  his  disciples 
counted  this  a  hard  saying,  utterly  unrea- 
sonable. "How  can  this  man  give  us  his 
flesh  to  eat?"  they  murmured,  as  they 
withdrew  from  his  company,  and  forsook 
his  cause.  A  veil  of  silence  then  fell  upon 
this  glorious  theme  of  his  self-impartation 
as  the  Living  Bread,  till  the  fateful  night 
in  which  he  was  betrayed,  when  he  es- 
sayed to  objectify  the  spiritual  fact  in 
sacramental  symbol.  Yet,  even  with  the 
mystic  Presence  thus  made  figuratively 
visible,  there  were  those  in  the  Apostolic 
company  who,  like  ourselves,  failed  to 
discern  his  Body,  that  is,  his  spiritual 
nearness,  or  who,  discerning  it,  failed  to 

69 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

perceive  that  the  pledge  of  its  reality  was 
its  correlation  with  the  wider  truth  of 
his  indwelling  in  his  Church,  and  in 
Christian  life  and  consciousness. 


70 


OF  THE  MERCIFUL. 


'Blessed  are  the  Merciful:  for  they 
shall  obtain  Mercy." 


V. 

OF  THE  MERCIFUL. 

THE  Beatitude  of  the  Merciful 
marks  the  transition  from  the  pas- 
sive aspect  of  the  earlier  Beatitudes  to  the 
active  dispositions  of  the  later  ones,  the 
Beatitude  of  the  Quest  for  Righteous- 
ness standing  midway  in  the  process.  If, 
as  we  found  at  the  beginning  of  our  study, 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  the  theme  of 
the  music  of  the  Beatitudes,  as  is  revealed 
both  in  the  opening  chord  and  in  tfre 
closing  strain  of  the  music,  Righteous- 
ness is  the  key  into  which  this  theme  is 
transposed,  the  remaining  Beatitudes 
being  interpretative  of  the  meaning  of 
that  righteousness. 

THE    RELATIVITY    OF    MERCY. 

Our  first  thought  in  connection  with 
the  Beatitude  of  the  Merciful  concerns  its 

75 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

special  place  in  the  octave.  Mercy  here 
follows,  explains,  and  illumines  right- 
eousness. A  careful  study  of  the  quality 
of  mercy  or  mercifulness  shows  it  to  be 
relative  in  its  nature,  for  nowhere  in  the 
sacred  records  will  it  be  found  to  stand 
quite  alone,  righteousness,  or  justice,  or 
truth,  ever  supporting  it  upon  one  side  or 
the  other.  In  ancient  Hebrew  literature, 
the  literature  of  the  quest  for  righteous- 
ness, this  relativity  of  mercy  is  the  theme 
of  prophet  and  poet  alike.  "He  hath 
showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good,"  de- 
clares Micah,  "for  what  doth  the  Lord 
require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  to  love 
mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God?"  The  psalmist  sets  forth  the  inti- 
macy of  this  relationship.  "Mercy  and 
truth  are  met  together :  righteousness  and 
peace  have  kissed  each  other."  It  is 
evident  that,  to  the  psalmist,  truth  flour- 
ishing out  of  the  earth,  and  righteousness 
looking  down  from  heaven,  are  not  stran- 
gers to  mercy,  but  eternal  forms  through 
which  mercy  is  made  manifest.  And 

76 


Of  the  Merciful. 

what  is  dimly  shadowed  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament is  clearly  revealed  in  the  New,  for 
mercy,  hand  in  hand  with  righteousness 
and  truth,  sings  itsx  way  through  the 
Gospel  story.  To  isolate  the  quality  of 
mercy  as  it  greets  us  at  nearly  every  turn 
in  holy  scripture,  is  to  falsify  and  dishonor 
it.  The  description  of  the  process 
of  the  last  judgment,  so  graphically 
given  by  St.  Matthew,  is  a  magnif- 
icent setting  forth  of  mercy  as  the  ulti- 
mate reward  of  mercifulness.  ''Come, 
ye  blessed  of  my  Father :  inasmuch  as  ye 
did  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  ye  did 
it  unto  me."  Yet  it  is  possible  to  isolate 
such  a  passage  as  this  in  support  of  a 
philanthropy  entirely  devoid  of  the  mor- 
al elements  which  form  the  very  fibre  of 
mercifulness.  In  like  manner  it  is  pos- 
sible to  isolate  the  Beatitude  of  the  Mer- 
ciful from  its  companions  in  the  octave; 
to  forget  that  it  is  preceded  by  the  quest 
for  righteousness,  and  followed  by  pure- 
heartedness.  The  relation  between  them 
is,  in  fact,  reciprocal.  Mercy,  as  we  have 

77 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

intimated,  softens  and  humanizes  right- 
eousness, while  righteousness  in  turn 
strengthens  and  ennobles  mercy. 

ITS  QUALITY  AND  SOURCE. 

Our  understanding  of  the  Beatitude 
will  be  assisted  by  an  inquiry  into  the 
source  of  mercy;  a  study  of  its  place  in 
the  character  and  teachings  of  Christ, 
who  himself  embodies  the  spirit  of  the 
Beatitude;  a  consideration  of  the  sense 
in  which  the  merciful  may  expect  to  ob- 
tain mercy. 

The  most  casual  reflection  makes  it 
apparent  that  mercy  does  not  spring  from 
nature,  or  inhere  in  nature's  processes. 
The  accepted  teaching  of  evolution,  as 
regards  its  general  principle,  depicts 
nature  as  in  a  state  of  unceasing  and 
relentless  struggle,  ever  forcing  out  of  the 
race  for  existence  those  individual  types 
and  collective  species  that  are  incapable 
of  meeting  the  terms  of  success  in  the 
combat.  In  the  light  of  the  "final  goal" 
of  which  the  poet  writes,  it  may  be  true 

78 


Of  the  Merciful. 

that  "nothing  walks  with  aimless  feet," 
that  "not  one  life  shall  be  destroyed,  or 
cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void,"  but  this  is  an 

idealistic  view  of  the  case.     The  scientific 

\ 

view  of  nature  is  quite  otherwise.  In 
John  Fiske's  delightful  little  book 
"Through  Nature  to  God,"  the  writer 
contrasts  the  poetic  and  scientific  aspects 
of  nature  under  the  title,  "The  summer 
field  and  what  it  tells  us."  He  draws 
a  picture  of  the  daisied  field,  musical  with 
the  murmurs  of  insect  life,  where  creeping 
and  winged  things  revel  in  the  pure  joy 
of  existence ;  where  the  sights  and  sounds 
of  nature  in  her  varying  moods, — the  glad- 
ness of  the  bobolink,  the  thrush's  tender 
note,  telling  of  the  sweet  companionship 
of  the  nest, — fill  us  with  a  sense  of  unal- 
loyed happiness  and  abounding  life.  All  of 
which,  he  promptly  reminds  us,  is  abso- 
lutely misleading  and  delusive.  For,  as  he 
goes  on  to  show,  just  so  soon  as  we  come  a 
little  closer  to  the  facts,  we  find  them 
telling  an  entirely  different  story.  The 
life  of  the  countless  tiny  denizens  of  the 

79 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

daisied  field  is  one  of  unceasing  toil,  of 
crowding  and  jostling,  where  the  weaker 
fall  unpitied  by  the  way;  of  starvation 
from  hunger  and  cold ;  of  robbery  utterly 
shameless,  and  murder  utterly  cruel. 
When  we  think  of  the  hawk's  talons  bur- 
ied in  the  breast  of  the  wren,  while  the 
relentless  beak  tears  the  little  wings  from 
the  quivering  bleeding  body,  our  mood 
toward  nature  is  changed.  Not  only  does 
nature  appear  a  stranger  to  pity,  but  utter- 
ly and  aggressively  merciless. 

THE  INSTINCT  OF  PITY. 

Moreover,  what  is  true  of  nature,  in  the 
lower  orders  of  being,  is  correspondingly 
true  of  man  in  his  varied  activities  and 
relationships.  Man,  in  his  ascent  from 
nature,  brings  with  him  the  heritage  of 
his  savage  ancestry.  In  his  purely  natural 
state  he  is  merciless  and  pitiless,  and  even 
when  subjected  to  the  refining  influences 
of  civilized  life,  retains  instincts  of  relent- 
less cruelty,  and  habits  of  warfare.  Man's 
inhumanity  to  man  has  passed  into  a 

80 


Of  the  Merciful. 

proverb  because  it  is  proverbial.  The 
fierce  competitions  of  business,  in  which 
the  weaker  go  to  the  wall,  the  heartless 
selfishness  of  social  life,  the  bitter  antag- 
onisms of  race,  remind  us  that  human 
nature  left  to  itself  is  devoid  of  what  is 
falsely  termed  the  "instinct  of  pity," 
pity  being  instinctive  only  when  a  higher 
law  has  intervened  and  lifted  man's  nature 
into  the  spiritual  region. 

Where,  then,  may  we  find  the  source 
of  mercy  and  pity,  if  not  in  nature? 
"Every  good  gift  and  every  perfect  gift," 
says  the  Apostle,  "is  from  above,  coming 
down  from  the  Father  of  lights,  with 
whom  can  be  no  variation,  neither  shad- 
ow that  can  be  cast  by  turning."  And 
mercy  is  indeed  a  good  and  perfect  gift. 
Here  the  teaching  of  an  apostle  and  the 
insight  of  the  greatest  of  modern  poets 
meet.  When  Shakespeare  prompts  Portia 
to  exalt  the  quality  of  mercy,  it  is  on  the 
ground  that  it  "droppeth  as  the  gentle 
rain  from  heaven  upon  the  place  beneath ; ' ' 
that  it  is  indeed  "an  attribute  of  God  him- 

81 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

self."  Nowhere  is  the  poet's  insight  into 
spiritual  things  more  divinely  true.  The 
course  of  mercy  is  defended  upon  the 
plea  of  its  being  Godlike,  which  is  equiv- 
alent to  the  motive  urged  by  Christ, 
"that  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your 
Father  which  is  in  Heaven." 


MERCY  IN  CHRIST  S  TEACHING. 

This  view  of  mercy  being  true,  we  are 
not  surprised  to  find  the  quality  that  lies 
at  the  heart  of  our  Beatitude  the  subject 
above  all  others  which  Christ  enlarges 
upon  most  frequently  in  his  later  teach- 
ings. It  is  the  incentive  to  forgiveness, 
which  is  but  an  expression  of  the  "piti- 
fulness  of  the  Infinite  Mercy;"  and,  when 
the  law  of  retaliation  is  succeeded  by 
the  law  of  love,  the  disciples  are  enjoined 
to  render  the  deeds  of  mercy.  "Ye 
have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  by 
them  of  old  time  thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  and  hate  thine  enemy.  But  I 
say  unto  you,  love  your  enemies,  bless 

82 


Of  the  Merciful. 

them  that  curse  you,  do  good  to  them 
that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  that  de- 
spitefully  use  you  and  persecute  you,  that 
ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father 
which  is  in  Heaven. "  Upon  the  complete- 
ness with  which  man  exhibits  mercy  to- 
wards his  fellow-man  in  the  forgiveness  of 
wrongs  inflicted,  turns  the  question  of 
his  own  forgiveness  at  the  hands  of  his 
Father  in  Heaven.  This  lies  at  the  heart  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  is  developed  further 
in  the  parable  of  the  Unmerciful  Servant, 
where  the  punishment  inflicted  leads  to 
the  admonition  "So  also  will  my  Heav- 
enly Father  do  unto  you,  if  ye  from  your 
heart  forgive  not  every  one  his  brother 
their  trespasses."  And  what  is  true  of 
Christ's  teaching  is  true  of  his  life,  which 
is  interfused  with  the  quality  of  merciful- 
ness, the  beauty  of  his  human  character 
resting  not  alone  upon  those  lofty  traits 
which  are  the  bond  of  its  moral  perfect- 
ness,  but  upon  the  union  of  these  with 
mercy  and  pity  and  tenderness.  His  mis- 
sion to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost  had  its 

83 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

spring  in  love,  and  found  expression  in  a 
service  which  abounded  in  acts  of  mercy. 
We  read  of  him  that  he  "knew  what  was 
in  man."  His  gentleness  in  dealing  with 
human  frailty,  his  unfailing  compassion, 
had  its  impulse  in  a  longing  to  bring  men 
to  a  knowledge  of  their  spiritual  possibil- 
ities ;  and  the  desire  thus  to  win  them  to 
truth  and  righteousness  had  its  motive  in 
love,  and  its  expression  in  mercy.  The 
old  theologies,  which  depicted  the  Infinite 
Being  as  setting  forth  upon  the  quest  of 
man's  redemption  for  His  own  greater 
glory,  with  man  utterly  lost  and  depraved 
as  the  object  of  the  divine  mission,  issued 
from  an  entirely  false  premise.  That 
such  a  view  is  passing,  is  cause  for  devout 
thankfulness.  God  would  never  have 
sought  to  save  man  were  man  not  worth 
the  saving.  God,  seeing  in  man  His  own 
image,  makes  mercy  the  measure  of  his 
love,  and  in  a  deep  and  precious  sense 
mercy  becomes  the  meeting-point  of  God 
and  man.  The  blessedness  of  the  Infin- 
ite One  translates  itself  into  the  spirit  of 

84 


Of  the  Merciful. 

man,  who  may  be  merciful  as  his  Father 
in  Heaven  is  merciful. 

THE  REWARD  OF  THE  MERCIFUL. 

We  have  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the 
central  word  of  our  Beatitude  in  order  to 
avoid  a  conclusion  that  would  narrow  its 
meaning.  The  mercy  promised  as  a  re- 
ward of  mercifulness  contemplates  not 
only  the  merciful  word  and  act,  but  the 
merciful  disposition.  The  Beatitudes  all 
have  their  primary  meanings  in  states  of 
being,  rather  than  in  acts  of  doing.  The 
blessedness  promised  does  not  await 
opportunities  for  the  exercise  of  the  dis- 
position, but  inheres  in  the  disposition 
itself.  We  conclude,  then,  that  when 
Jesus  pronounces  his  Beatitude  upon  the 
merciful  man,  it  is  his  thought  that  to  be 
merciful  is  to  be  Godlike,  which  is  shown 
in  his  conclusion,  "Bless  them  that  hate 
you,  in  order  that  ye  may  be  the  children 
of  your  Father  which  is  in  Heaven." 
Man's  purpose  in  showing  mercy  to  his 
fellow-creatures  is  precisely  the  same  as 

85 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

that  which  inspired  God's  compassion 
toward  humankind.  The  merciful  man 
shows  pity  and  tenderness  again  and 
again,  in  the  face  of  cold  ingratitude  and 
bitter  hate,  to  the  gracious  end  that  he  too 
may  become  a  saviour  of  his  race,  bringing 
men  to  a  knowledge  of  their  Father,  and 
to  a  realization  of  the  infinite  possibilities 
that  lie  enfolded  within  their  natures. 

And  who  can  measure  the  secret  hap- 
piness that  crowns  the  lot  of  those  who 
render  the  deeds  of  mercy!  "You  will 
find  as  you  look  back  upon  your  life," 
wrote  one  who  was  ever  active  in  the 
ministries  of  love,  "that  the  moments 
that  stand  out,  the  moments  when  you 
have  really  lived,  are  the  moments  when 
you  have  done  things  in  the  spirit  of  love. 
As  memory  scans  the  past,  above  and 
beyond  all  the  transitory  pleasures  of  life, 
there  leap  forward  those  supreme  hours 
when  you  have  been  enabled  to  do  un- 
noticed kindnesses  to  those  around  you, 
things  too  trifling  to  speak  about,  but 
which  you  feel  have  entered  into  your 

86 


Of  the  Merciful. 

eternal  life.  I  have  seen  almost  all  the 
beautiful  things  God  has  made;  I  have 
enjoyed  almost  every  pleasure  that  He 
has  planned  for  man;  and  yet,  as  I  look 
back,  I  see,  standing  out  above  all  the  life 
that  has  gone,  four  or  five  short  experien- 
ces when  the  love  of  God  reflected  itself 
in  some  poor  imitation,  some  small  act  of 
love  of  mine,  and  these  seem  to  be  the 
things  which  alone  of  all  one's  life  abide. ' ' 
He  continues:  "the  words  which  all  of 
us  one  day  shall  hear,  sound  not  of  the- 
ology, but  of  life;  not  of  churches  and 
saints,  but  of  the  hungry  and  poor;  not 
of  creeds  and  doctrines,  but  of  shelter 
and  clothing;  not  of  Bibles  and  prayer 
books,  but  of  cups  of  cold  water  in  the 
name  of  Christ."  The  merciful  shall 
obtain  mercy  when  humanity,  redeemed 
and  restored  through  the  ministries  of 
love,  shall  stand  in  the  presence  of  God, 
the  perfect  embodiment  of  his  glory,  the 
absolute  reflection  of  his  love.  Through 
fellowship  with  him  we  are  made  par- 
takers of  the  divine  nature;  and  the  cup 

87 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

of  cold  water  in  the  name  of  a  disciple,  or 
the  life  laid  down  for  the  sake  of  a  friend , 
shall  not  be  destitute  of  reward.  But 
there  is  a  sense  in  which  we  may  look  for 
that  reward  in  this  present  life,  not  only 
in  a  consciousness  of  being  godlike,  but  in 
the  fact  that  love  begets  love,  and  though 
foiled  again  and  again  in  its  gracious 
ministry  of  pity  and  tenderness,  the 
moment  comes  at  last  when  its  conquest 
is  complete,  and  the  object  of  its  com- 
passion is  melted  into  a  grateful  acknowl- 
edgement of  that  which  love  hath 
wrought. 


88 


OF  THE  PURE  IN   HEART. 


''Blessed  are  the  Pure  in  Heart:  for 
they  shall  see  God." 


VI. 

OF  THE  PURE  IN  HEART. 

IT  will  be  remembered  that  in  a  pre- 
vious address  we  considered  the  rela- 
tion of  the  octave  to  originality,  recalling 
the  familiar  parallels  that  maybe  found  in 
the  sacred  writings  that  nurtured  the 
mental  development  of  Jesus.  We  found 
that,  when  the  full  significance  of  these 
parallels  has  been  admitted,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  "the  Master  formulated  the 
Beatitudes,  grouped  them  into  their  re- 
markable sequence,  and  crowned  them 
with  that  spiritual  distinctiveness  which 
gives  them  their  essential  character." 
When,  however,  we  turn  our  thoughts  to 
the  Beatitude  of  the  Pure  in  Heart,  which 
in  its  clear  depths  reflects  the  character  of 
Jesus  more  perfectly,  and  enshrines  his 
vision  of  spiritual  truth  more  completely, 

93 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

than  do  any  of  its  companions  in  the 
octave,  we  find  ourselves  in  an  entirely 
different  atmosphere,  for  no  parallel  or 
equivalent  to  this  Beatitude  can  be  found 
elsewhere  in  Holy  Scripture.  It  wells  up 
from  the  inner  spiritual  consciousness  of 
the  Master,  and  is  as  original  in  the  his- 
tory of  spiritual  thought  as  his  own  stain- 
less character  was  unparalleled  in  the 
unfoldings  of  human  experience. 

It  is  impossible  to  escape  a  sense  of  the 
singular  elevation  of  this  Beatitude  of  the 
Pure  in  Heart.  Following  the  footsteps 
of  the  Master  in  the  path  of  the  perfect 
life,  we  have  ascended  step  by  step  from 
the  quiet  valley  of  contemplation  to 
heights  of  serenest  vision,  where,  to  the 
spiritual  eye,  "the  King  in  his  beauty,  and 
the  land  that  is  very  far  off"  may  be  seen. 
"Lord  who  shall  dwell  in  thy  tabernacle? 
or  who  shall  rest  upon  thy  holy  hill? 
Even  he  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure 
heart."  "When  Thou  saidst  unto  me 
'Seek  ye  my  face,'  my  heart  said  unto 
thee,  'Thy  face,  Lord,  will  I  seek."  It  is 

94 


Of  the  Pure  in  Heart. 

because  of  a  sense  of  soil  and  impurity 
upon  hands  and  heart  that  the  face  of 
God  becomes  veiled  to  the  seeker,  and  the 
soul  of  man  sets  forth  upon  the  quest  not 
only  of  righteousness, x  but  of  purity  and 
holiness,  "without  which  no  man  shall  see 
the  Lord." 

THE  INWARD  SPRING  OF  PURITY. 

The  first  thought  suggested  by  the 
Beatitude  is  that  it  is  a  development  of 
the  central  idea  of  righteousness,  upon  its 
spiritual  or  subjective  side.  After  pro- 
nouncing his  blessing  upon  those  who 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness, 
the  Master  has  a  word  to  say  about  mer- 
cifulness, which  is  righteousness  active, 
and  then  passes  on  to  speak  of  purity, 
which  is  righteousness  passive.  We  have 
already  found  that  the  Beatitudes  have 
their  primary  meaning  in  states  of  being 
rather  than  in  acts  of  doing.  This  is  pre- 
eminently true  of  pureheartedness,  which 
is  a  condition  of  inward  purity,  from 

95 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

which  pure  thoughts  and  dispositions 
unceasingly  spring.  "Keep  thy  heart 
with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it  are  the 
issues  of  life."  Thus  ran  the  ancient 
proverb,  and  it  is  true  for  all  time.  It  is 
just  here  that  religion  is  distinguished 
from  moral  philosophy.  It  inquires  in- 
to the  state  of  the  heart.  It  claims  and 
enlists  the  affections.  It  begins  its  work 
at  the  center,  where  it  insists  that  purity 
shall  be  enthroned,  and  passes  out  to  the 
widest  circumference  of  life.  And  that 
which  is  true  in  the  direction  of  purity  is 
equally  true  as  regards  the  sources  of  im- 
purity. Out  of  the  heart  proceed  as  from 
a  poisoned  spring  every  one  of  those  sin- 
ister influences  that  darken  human  life 
and  destroy  human  happiness.  But, 
when  purity  is  enthroned  in  the  heart, 
it  becomes  the  inspiration  of  every  good 
and  perfect  work,  the  safeguard  of  the 
moral  life,  and  the  inward  pledge  of  char- 
acter. 


96 


Of  the  Pure  in  Heart. 

THE  SPECTRUM  OF  PURITY. 

An  analysis  of  the  content  of  heart- 
purity  will  disclose  certain  distinctive 
constituent  elements,"  among  which  we 
find  guilelessness,  singleness  of  heart,  and 
simplicity.  All  of  these  are  present  in 
the  condition  of  heart  which  this  Beati- 
tude describes,  and  with  them  in  mind 
we  shall  be  able  to  examine  more  closely 
the  quality  of  pureheartedness  as  it  is 
reflected  in  human  life.  First,  then,  we 
see  its  presence  in  the  unsullied  innocence 
of  childhood.  It  is  very  common  to  hear 
the  quality  of  innocence  disparaged  on 
the  ground  that  it  is  mere  ignorance  of 
evil,  and,  therefore,  without  moral  sig- 
nificance. Because  it  is  untried  it  is  di- 
vested of  its  moral  beauty,  and  emptied  of 
its  moral  value.  There  is  an  element  of 
truth  in  this  view,  for  the  problem  of  the 
Christian  life  consists  in  the  development 
of  conscious  purity,  under  the  pressure 
of  temptation,  out  of  the  raw  material  of 
innocence.  Yet  at  the  same  time  it  must 

97 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

be  constantly  borne  in  mind  that  Christ 
declared  this  condition  of  innocence,  or 
some  state  analagous  to  it,  the  title  of 
entrance  into  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
"They  brought  young  children  to  Christ," 
says  St.  Mark,  "that  he  should  touch  them, 
but  the  disciples  rebuked  those  that 
broughtthem, ' '  a  circumstance  which  drew 
from  the  lips  of  Christ  those  tender  words, 
"suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me, 
and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  whosoever  shall  not  receive  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  as  a  little  child,  he  shall 
not  enter  therein."  In  other  words,  guile- 
lessness,  singleness  of  heart,  and  sim- 
plicity, are  of  the  texture  of  spiritual  char- 
acter. In  the  light  of  Christ's  clear 
teaching,  with  what  mingled  feelings  of 
surprise  and  regret  must  we  regard  that 
curious  phase  of  protestant  evangelism 
which  busies  itself  with  emotional  expe- 
dients for  the  so-called  conversion  of 
children,  forcing  upon  their  pure  minds 
thoughts  of  guilt  and  sin,  which  belong 

98 


Of  the  Pure  in  Heart. 

only  to  later  developments  of  spiritual 
experience!  Christ  did  not  say  "except 
ye  convert  these  little  ones  and  acquaint 
them  with  sin  and  its  consequences,  they 
cannot  come  to  know  the  Father's 
love,"  but  enjoined  upon  the  disciples 
themselves  that  they  should  become  as 
little  children.  And  in  another  place, 
in  singular  appositeness  to  this  Beati- 
tude, the  Master  said,  speaking  of  little 
children,  "Their  angels  do  always  behold 
the  face  of  my  Father,  which  is  in  hea- 
ven." It  was  in  the  spirit  of  this  utter- 
ance of  Jesus  that  Wordsworth  wrote 
his  immortal  line,  "Heaven  lies  about  us 
in  our  infancy." 

THE  RESTORATION  OF  PURITY. 

If,  then,  heart- purity  is  a  condition 
analogous  to  innocence,  and  such  a  state 
must  be  attained  if  the  soul  is  to  win  the 
vision  of  God,  is  not  the  outlook  one  of 
discouragement  to  us  who  bear  the  marks 
of  many  an  unsuccessful  struggle,  the 
stains  of  many  a  dark  defeat,  in  the  con- 

99 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

flict  with  the  forces  of  moral  evil  that  are 
in  the  world  ?  It  is  here  that  the  gospel  of 
Christ  finds  us.  The  soul  must  return  to 
purity,  not  innocence.  This  purity  is 
imparted  by  the  divine  spirit  who  "takes 
of  the  things  of  Christ  and  shows  them 
unto  us,"  that  is,  mediates  or  imparts  the 
purity  of  Christ.  And  this  principle  of 
transformation,  working  from  within,  is 
met  by  a  like  principle,  working  from 
without.  "Reflecting  as  in  a  mirror  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  we  are  changed  from 
character  to  character."  In  the  New 
Testament  sometimes  this  inward  alter- 
ation is  described  in  terms  of  regeneration, 
sometimes  of  redemption.  "How  can  a 
man  be  born,  when  he  is  old?"  asked  Nico- 
demus,  naively.  "Art  thou  a  Master  of 
Israel  and  knowest  not  these  things?" 
answered  Jesus.  Yet  Christ's  explanation 
of  the  process  of  regeneration  does  not 
explain,  it  only  emphasizes  the  myste- 
riousness,  of  the  new  birth.  "The  wind 
bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hear- 
est  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell 
100 


Of  the  Pure  in  Heart. 

whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it  goeth, 
so  is  everyone  that  is  born  of  the  spirit." 
Entrance  into  the  spiritual  kingdom  can 
be  effected  only  by  a  birth  from  above, 
closely  associated  with  which  the  con- 
stituent elements  of  inner  purity  reap- 
pear, namely,  the  guilelessness  that  think  - 
eth  no  evil,  and  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity 
but  in  the  truth;  the  singleness  of  heart, 
which  says,  "I  come  to  do  thy  will,  O 
God";  and  that  simplicity  of  character 
which  is  the  vesture  of  pureheartedness. 
Restoration  of  purity  through  a  re- 
demptive process  is  another  aspect  of  the 
work  of  Christ  in  man's  spiritual  nature. 
We  cannot  fathom  the  meaning  of  the 
Cross,  but  we  know  that  in  some  deep 
sense  it  is  closely  related  to  this  process. 

"We  may  not  know,  we  cannot  tell 
What  pains  he  had  to  bear;    . 
But  we  believe  it  was  for  us 

He   hung  and  suffered  there." 

In  whatever  obscurity  the  mystery  of 
atonement  may  be  involved,  it  becomes 
101 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

luminous  with  meaning  when  it  is  found 
that  it  meets  and  answers  the  mystery  of 
evil  in  the  human  heart,  which  otherwise 
leaves  the  soul  of  man  groping  hopelessly 
in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death. 
The  Bible  opens  with  a  symbolic  account 
of  the  fall  of  man  from  a  state  of  innocence. 
It  closes  with  a  symbolic  representation  of 
the  restoration  to  purity  of  the  host  of 
God's  redeemed,  standing  before  the 
throne  and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed  in 
white,  and  with  palms  in  their  hands. 
"These  are  they  which  have  washed  their 
robes,  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb." 

THE  BEATIFIC    VISION. 

We  pass  now  to  a  consideration  of  the 
spiritual  vision  which  is  promised  to  the 
pure  in  heart.  "They  shall  see  God," 
declares  the  Master.  Is  this  the  state- 
ment of  a  clear  and  essential  truth,  or  is  it 
an  extravagance  of  the  mysticism  of  Jesus  ? 
The  meaning  back  of  the  assurance  is,  of 
course,  quite  obvious,  i.e.,  that  our  pow- 
102 


Of  the  Pure  in  Heart. 

ers  of  perception  are  influenced  by  our 
moral  condition.  "Who  shall  ascend  into 
the  hill  of  the  Lord  ?  or  who  shall  stand  in 
his  holy  place?"  There  can  be  but  one 
answer  to  the  question,  and  that  follows 
immediately  in  the  text:  "Even  he  that 
hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart."  As 
an  English  writer  has  said,  "the  hill  of  the 
Lord,  on  whose  summit  all  light  shines, 
is  no  inaccessible  height.  Moral  eleva- 
tion and  spiritual  vision  are  intimately 
related."  It  is  of  interest  to  trace  this 
thought  of  the  spiritual  vision  as  it  ap- 
pears elsewhere  in  scripture,  pre-eminent- 
ly in  the  writings  of  St.  John,  who  de- 
clares, "now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and 
it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be, 
but  we  know  that  when  he  shall  appear 
we  shall  be  like  him,"  then  adding  sig- 
nificantly, "for  we  shall  see  him  as  he 
is."  He  evidently  refers  to  the  vision  of 
the  glorified  Christ,  for  in  his  Gospel  he 
writes  with  careful  emphasis:  "No  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time,  the  Only  Be- 
gotten, which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the 

103 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

Father,  he  hath  declared  him."  It  is 
very  evident  that  to  the  Apostle's  mind 
the  truest,  the  completest,  the  divinest 
revelation  of  God  was  in  the  person  and 
character  of  the  Christ.  The  sight  or  vis- 
ion of  God  is  ever  through  some  medium. 
The  vision  is  seen  through  a  veil.  To  the 
purehearted  there  is  a  view  of  God  in 
nature  and  her  processes,  for  "the  heavens 
declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firma- 
ment showeth  his  handiwork,"  while  to 
the  unspiritual,  the  impure,  the  self- 
absorbed,  God  in  nature  is  simply  invis- 
ible. "The  sights  and  sounds  of  the  mate- 
rial world  are  but  the  drapery  of  the  robe 
beneath  which  God  has  concealed  his 
mysterious  loveliness."  As  we  look  at 
nature  we  see  God  as  through  a  veil,  but 
the  essential  condition  of  our  seeing  him 
at  all  is  the  grace  of  an  inward  purity 
enthroned  in  the  heart. 

THE  VISION  IN  HUMANITY. 

A  higher  revelation  is  found  in  that 
disclosure  of  himself  which  God  has  given 

104 


Of  the  Pure  in  Heart. 

in  man,  upon  whom  he  has  bestowed  his 
image,  whom  he  has  fashioned  in  some 
deep  sense  in  his  invisible  likeness.  In 
following  the  quest  for  God  as  he  thus 
unfolds  himself  in  human  life  and  ex- 
perience, we  must  avoid  a  predisposition 
in  favor  of  accepted  types.  "The  light 
that  lighteth  every  man"  is  diffusing 
itself  in  ways  that  cannot  be  measured 
by  standards  of  orthodoxy.  The  question 
as  to  who  are  the  saints  and  who  the  sin- 
ners may  be  settled  some  time  in  some 
future  adjudication,  but  not  here,  and 
not  now.  The  image  of  God,  marred  and 
imperfect  through  human  frailty,  is 
stamped  upon  all  men,  irrespective  of  the 
accidents  of  temporal  condition.  And  the 
pureminded,  passing  in  and  out  among 
men,  as  did  the  Son  of  Man  in  the  days 
of  his  earthly  ministry,  will  see  God  in 
all  his  human  children,  and  under  the 
spell  of  that  vision  will  go  forth  upon 
ministries  of  service  and  helpfulness. 
When  the  temptation  to  misanthropy  is 
strong  upon  him,  and  nameless  disap- 

105 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

pointments  fall  like  darkening  shadows 
across  the  path  of  his  well-doing,  he  will 
still  be  obedient  to  the  heavenly  vision, 
remembering  that  his  Master,  who  saw 
more  deeply  into  the  human  heart  than 
he  can  ever  see,  retained  his  belief  in 
man,  and  out  of  almost  hopeless  condi- 
tions won  response  from  souls  in  whom 
the  divine  spark  seemed  almost  extinct, 
calling  forth  in  human  lives  the  image  of 
his  divine  Father. 

THE  VISION  IN  CHRIST. 

But  the  vision  of  God  in  nature,— 
"though  the  earth  and  every  common 
sight  be  apparelled  in  celestial  light; "and 
the  vision  of  God  in  history,  though  his- 
tory be  understood  as  indeed  "His  story," 
must  ever  be  partial  and  incomplete, 
because  of  the  dimness  of  the  medium  of 
the  disclosure.  The  perfect  vision  of  God 
is  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ  who  is  the 

•^  *'•£ 

1  'effulgence  of  his  glory  and  the  very  im- 
age of  his  substance. ' '  "Lord,  shew  us  the 
Father,  and  it  suffice th  us,"  was  the 

106 


Of  the  Pure  in  Heart. 

yearning  entreaty  of  the  wondering  Philip. 
"Have  I  been  so  long  a  time  with  you,  and 
yet  hast  thou  not  known  me,  Philip?" 
was  his  Master's  questioning  reproof.  "He 
that  hath  seen  me  liath  seen  the  Fa- 
ther." As  these  words  fell  from  his  lips, 
Philip  must  have  recalled  those  other 
words  of  his,  "Blessed  are  the  eyes  that  see 
the  things  that  ye  see :  for  I  say  unto  you 
that  many  prophets  and  kings  have  desired 
to  see  the  things  that  ye  see,  and  have 
not  seen  them."  The  beatific  vision, 
—the  heaven  of  the  pure  in  heart — will 
be  a  contemplation  of  the  light  of  the 
glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. 


107 


OF  THE  PEACEMAKERS. 


"Blessed  are  the  Peacemakers:  for 
they  shall  be  called  Sons  of 
God." 


OF  THE  PEACEMAKERS. 

IN  the  Beatitude  of  the  Peacemakers, 
with  its  crowning  word  concerning 
sonship,  we  touch  the  seventh  note  in 
the  octave  of  blessedness.  The  delinea- 
tion of  spiritual  character  at  this  stage 
reaches  its  loftiest  expression,  the  next 
step  being  the  crystallization  of  that 
character  by  contact  with  its  opposite  in 
the  world,  involving  persecution.  Glanc- 
ing backward  over  our  previous  studies, 
it  will  be  seen  that  in  the  development  of 
his  theme,  the  Master  passes  two  distinct 
points  of  transition,  the  first  of  these  being 
the  transition  from  the  passive  to  the 
active  in  the  interior  region  of  the  spirit- 
ual life,  where  poverty  of  spirit,  contri- 
tion, and  what  is  imperfectly  termed 
meekness,  rise  into  the  eager  quest  of  the 
111 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

soul  for  righteousness;  the  second  being 
the  transition  from  the  inner  life  of  aspi- 
ration and  effort  to  the  wider  field  of  en- 
deavor and  service,  as  set  forth  in  the 
character  of  the  Peacemaker.  In  unfold- 
ing the  meaning  of  our  present  Beatitude, 
let  us  think  first  of  the  preparation  of  the 
peacemaker  for  his  task,  next  of  the 
sphere  of  his  influence,  and  finally  of  the 
reward  of  his  service. 

HIS    PREPARATION. 

While  all  of  the  qualities  previously 
enumerated  in  the  octave  are  constituents 
of  the  peacemaker's  preparation,  the 
Beatitude  immediately  preceding  the  pre- 
sent one  expresses  the  essential  pre- 
requisite for  peacemaking  according  to 
the  rule  of  Christ.  "Blessed  are  the  pure 
in  heart;  for  they  shall  see  God."  The 
mystic  reward  of  the  pure  in  heart  being 
the  beatific  vision,  or  vision  of  God, 
where  may  we  find  that  vision  most  per- 
fectly expressed?  Obviously,  in  Christ. 
"No  one,"  writes  St.  John,  "hath  seen 
112 


Of  the  Peacemakers. 

God  at  any  time;  the  only- begotten, 
which  is  on  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  he 
hath  declared  him."  In  what  character, 
then,  does  the  Incarnation  disclose  the 
Divine  Father?  God's  disclosure  of  him- 
self in  Christ  is  that  of  the  Divine  Peace- 
maker, reconciling  the  world  unto  him- 
self, sending  his  Son  to  preach  peace  to 
them  that  are  far  off,  and  to  them  that 
are  nigh,  accomplishing  his  gracious  pur- 
pose at  the  cost  of  infinite  pain,  and  com- 
pleting his  benign  work  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  ministry  of  reconciliation. 
Prophecy  anticipates  this  disclosure.  The 
Son  to  be  born,  the  child  to  be  given,  is 
to  be  called  the  Everlasting  Father,  the 
Prince  of  Peace.  In  the  celestial  setting 
of  the  nativity,  the  antiphon  of  the  heav- 
enly host  is  an  announcement  of  univer- 
sal peace,  "And  suddenly  there  was  with 
the  angel  a  multitude  of  the  heavenly 
host,  praising  God,  and  saying,  'Glory 
to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace 
among  men  in  whom  he  is  well  pleased.' ' 
And  anticipation  is  justified  by  fulfill- 

113 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

ment.  As  the  matchless  life  unfolds  in 
the  gospel  story,  of  profounder  signif- 
icance than  any  mere  program  of  peace 
and  peacemaking,  deeper  than  any  an- 
nouncement of  goodwill  to  a  weary,  rest- 
less world,  was  the  serene,  unbroken  calm 
in  which  the  Son  of  Man  lived  and  had 
his  being.  It  told  of  the  perfect  adjust- 
ment of  a  valid  human  experience  to  the 
Divine  Nature  of  which  it  was  an  essen- 
tial part.  So  personal  was  the  realization 
of  this  peace  to  his  consciousness  that 
he  came  to  speak  of  it  as  his  own  peace, 
a  peace  which  having  received  he  was 
thenceforth  able  to  communicate.  The 
closing  scene  in  his  life-drama,  when 
his  human  form  vanishes  from  sight, 
lost  in  the  encircling  cloud,  depicts  him 
in  the  act  of  the  bestowal  of  his  peace. 

PEACE  AND  LOVE. 

The  primary  preparation  of  the  Peace- 
maker is  the  reception  of  that  peace,  the 
possession  of  which  signifies  admission  to 
the  ministry  of  reconciliation.  Yet  it 

114 


Of  the  Peacemakers. 

should  be  remembered  that  the  peace 
which  qualifies  for  peacemaking  is  de- 
rivative in  its  nature.  It  is  the  offspring 
and  flower  of  love.  v/^he  motive  that  lay 
back  of  the  Incarnation,  God's  overture 
of  peace,  was  love.  The  Infinite  One  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  best- 
beloved.  Beyond  this,  the  mind  cannot 
denetrate,  for  this  love  was  uncreated,  ele- 
mental. This  motive  reappears  in  the 
mission  of  the  Christ,  and  again  in  the 
peacemaking  of  those  who  profess  and 
call  themselves  his  disciples.  Under  its 
holy  impulse,  and  by  its  informing  grace, 
the  peace  of  God,  ruling  the  peacemaker's 
heart  through  love,  becomes  the  disciple's 
noblest  spiritual  asset,  as  well  as  his 
equipment  for  his  task. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  love  provides  the 
motive  and  creates  the  impulse,  it  is  a 
grace  equally  efficient  in  defining  the 
manner  in  which  every  work  of  recon- 
ciliation must  be  done.  Think  of  the  gold- 
en fruitage  of  this  rare  growth  from  the 
garden  of  the  soul !  The  fruit  of  the  spirit 

115 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

of  love  is  love,  joy,  peace,  patience,  kind- 
ness, goodness,  faithfulness,  humility, 
self-control.  The  peacemaker,  rooted  and 
grounded  in  love,  will  express  these  in 
every  activity  and  relation.  The  prin- 
ciple upon  which  he  works  will  be  the 
identical  principle  which  inspired  the 
Incarnation,  and  animated  the  Christ. 
Thus  equipped,  he  will  be  qualified  for 
unfailing  service  in  the  broad  field  of 
effective  peacemaking. 

THE  SPHERE  OF  HIS  INFLUENCE. 

The  sphere  of  the  peacemaker's  in- 
fluence and  activity,  which  at  first  glance 
appears  quite  obvious,  is  not  unfrequently 
narrowed  by  misconceptions.  We  picture 
the  traditional  peacemaker  an  amiable 
individual,  adjusting  surface  differences, 
deprecating  impending  quarrels,  ever  in 
the  act  of  pouring  oil  upon  the  troubled 
waters  of  incompatibility  in  its  varied 
aspects,  by  gentle  speech  and  soft  appeal. 
In  such  a  nature,  many  of  the  elements  of 
which  we  have  previously  spoken  are 

116 


Of  the  Peacemakers. 

surely  mixed,  but  the  picture  falls  short 
of  that  which  is  framed  for  us  in  the 
Beatitude  of  the  Peacemakers,  far  short 
of  the  portrait  of  the  Great  Peacemaker 
as  painted  in  the  gospel  narratives.  The 
reason  for  the  colorlessness  of  the  tra- 
ditional conception  appears  the  moment 
our  eyes  rest  upon  the  wider  horizons 
contemplated  by  the  Master  in  appoint- 
ing to  his  followers  the  ministry  of  rec- 
onciliation. If  the  disciple  was  not  to 
be  above  his  Master  respecting  spiritual 
privilege,  neither  was  he  to  be  below  his 
Master  in  the  furtherance  of  the  peace 
mission  of  the  Son  of  God,  this  latter 
term,  Son  of  God,  being  applied  freely 
and  without  reserve  to  the  obscurest 
of  his  followers,  who,  led  by  his  example 
and  inspired  by  his  vision,  should  seek 
to  usher  in  the  Kingdom  of  his  peace. 
The  boundaries  of  this  Kingdom,  which 
we  must  now  define,  determine  for  us  the 
precise  region  wherein  the  peacemaker 
of  the  Beatitude  must  fulfill  his  appointed 
task.  These  boundaries,  which  compre- 

117 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

hend  the  entire  field  of  man's  broken 
peace,  extend  from  their  common  center 
in  man's  inner  spiritual  consciousness,  in 
a  two-fold  direction  or  relationship,  that 
is,  towards  his  fellow-man,  and  towards 
his  Father-God.  Peace,  in  its  last  analy- 
sis, is  a  matter  of  adjustment,  and  the 
process  of  this  adjustment  is  ever  fraught 
with  pain  and  disquietude.  Thus  the 
Great  Peacemaker  is  heard  to  declare  that 
he  came  not  to  send  peace  on  the  earth, 
but  a  sword;  to  develop  antagonisms,  to 
foster  variance,  to  engender  strife.  In  the 
sphere  of  man's  relation  to  the  problem 
of  his  own  self-realization,  the  classic 
statement  of  the  case  of  man's  struggle 
for  peace  is  found  in  the  self -revelation  of 
a  later  Apostle,  who  vividly  portrays  the 
conflict  which  he  discovers  in  his  nature 
between  what  he  terms  the  law  of  his 
mind  and  the  action  of  those  baser  im- 
pulses which  are  leagued  against  him, 
condemning  him  to  an  ignoble  captivity, 
the  eternal  enemies  of  his  peace.  He  rises 
upon  stepping-stones  of  his  dead  or  dying 

118 


Of  the  Peacemakers. 

self  to  the  higher  things  of  the  spirit,  by 
association  with  a  power,  which  he  finds 
to  be  resident  in  the  living  Christ,  who 
becomes  the  instrument  of  his  peace. 

THE  INWARD  HARMONY. 

This  reflection  upon  the  peace  of  the 
soul  in  the  perfect  adjustment  of  the 
motions  of  the  inner  life  to  a  higher  law, 
at  first  sight  appears  to  have  little  bear- 
ing upon  the  mission  of  the  peacemaker, 
so  accustomed  are  we  to  conceive  the 
latter  in  the  role  of  an  intermediary,  pure 
and  simple.  Yet  it  is  the  realization  of 
this  inward  harmony  which  qualifies  for 
peacemaking,  for  it  opens  to  the  peace- 
maker's vision  the  wide  field  of  man's 
deepest  spiritual  need,  the  need  for  in- 
ward unity,  while  at  the  same  time,  it 
provides  him  with  a  gospel  of  peace  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  experience.  And  what 
a  gospel  is  here!  The  Beatitude  of  the 
Peacemaker  is  the  blessedness  of  the  soul 
which  whispers  to  another  soul  the  mes- 
sage of  the  power  of  Christ  to  create  har- 

119 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

mony  in  a  region  where  all  has  been  jar- 
ring discord  and  the  tumultuous  restless- 
ness of  despair.  How  beautiful  upon  the 
mountains  are  the  feet  of  those  who  bring 
such  tidings !  To  be  at  peace  within  one's 
self  is  to  be  at  peace  with  God,  and  to  be 
at  peace  with  God  is  to  be  at  peace  with 
the  world.  If  it  be  objected  that  such  a 
view  is  individualistic,  and  formulates  no 
program  of  peace,  no  consummation  such 
as  the  ancient  seer  had  in  vision,  when 
he  dreamed  of  a  far-off  time  when  war 
should  be  no  more,  and  over  broken  sword 
and  shattered  spear  should  rise  the  sym- 
bols of  a  renewed  social  and  industrial 
order,  the  answer  is  that  while  Christian- 
ity claims  this  vision  as  her  very  own, 
and  is  committed  to  its  advancement  by 
every  means  known  to  her  organized 
consciousness,  her  program  of  peace  must 
avail  but  little  apart  from  the  reality  of 
a  conscious  personal  experience,  based 
upon  an  underlying  spiritual  principle, 
interpreting  the  essential  elements  of  the 
gospel  of  peacemaking.  The  Kingdom 
120 


Of  the  Peacemakers. 

of  peace  is  both  within  and  without,  but 
it  is  first  of  all  within,  and  cometh  not 
with  observation.  Christ  himself  ushered 
in  no  universal  order,  only  the  begin- 
nings of  a  reign  of  peace  in  the  hearts  of 
such  as  would  acknowledge  his  sway. 
The  sphere  of  the  peacemaker's  activity 
is' limitless.  No  task  too  humble,  no  sit- 
uation too  lowly,  to  enlist  his  noblest 
powers  of  mind  and  heart.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  problem  of  human  condition  or 
circumstance  so  great  as  to  be  beyond  the 
range  of  his  solicitude  and  concern. 

THE  REWARD     OF  HIS  SERVICE. 

We  are  now  led  to  consider  briefly  the 
reward  of  the  peacemaker's  service.  In 
the  previous  Beatitudes,  the  blessedness 
affixed  told  of  spiritual  possession,  as  of 
the  heritage  of  the  earth,  or  of  admis- 
sion to  spiritual  privilege,  as  of  the  vision 
of  God.  In  the  present  instance,  both 
privilege  and  possession  are  implied, 
while  a  further  element  is  introduced, 
namely  the  world's  acknowledgement  of 
121 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

spiritual  nobility.  The  peacemakers  are 
to  be  called  Sons  of  God,  that  is,  outward- 
ly accredited  as  such.  Viewed  in  the  light 
of  his  life-story,  as  we  have  it  in  the 
gospel  narratives,  there  is  something 
bordering  upon  the  pathetic  in  this  as- 
surance as  it  falls  from  the  lips  of  the 
Master.  The  evangelists,  working  over 
their  reminiscences  nearly  half  a  century 
later,  present  the  picture  of  the  Christ 
in  a  framework  of  the  supernatural. 
They  report  the  tradition  of  an  annun- 
ciation made  to  the  virgin  of  Nazareth 
concerning  the  Christ -child,  that  he 
should  be  called  the  Son  of  God.  They 
recall,  as  they  picture  the  baptismal  and 
transfiguration  scenes,  a  voice  from  the 
skies  attesting  the  verity  of  that  Sonship. 
But  a  hope  and  yearning  that  lay  deep  in 
the  heart  of  Jesus  was  that  his  contem- 
poraries should  perceive  his  Sonship,  and 
that  acknowledgement  should  come  from  a 
human,  rather  than  from  an  angelic  or  di- 
vine, source.  When,  in  a  supreme  hour, 
such  an  acknowledgement  came,  it  marked 
122 


Of  the  Peacemakers. 

the  highest  level  of  his  self-revelation 
to  the  world,  the  summit  of  a  human  joy, 
which  even  the  approaching  mystery  of 
the  passion  and  the  cross  could  not  dim 
or  overcast.  We  have  already  traced  an 
identity  between  the  Great  Peacemaker's 
task  and  that  appointed  his  followers  in 
the  ministry  of  reconciliation.  We  now  find 
an  identity  in  the  reward  for  the  service 
rendered.  The  blessedness  of  the  Peace- 
maker, according  to  this  Beatitude,  con- 
sists not  merely  in  a  consciousness  of 
sonship,  but  in  the  recognition  of  that 
sonship  by  the  world.  Yet  the  secret 
joy  of  the  peacemaker  has  its  spring  in 
that  which  makes  such  recognition  pos- 
sible on  the  part  of  the  world,  namely, 
the  world's  power  to  discern  and  appraise 
those  nobler  traits  and  finer  excellences 
which,  in  the  peacemaker's  character, 
speak  of  a  sonship  beatific  and  divine. 


123 


OF  THE  PERSECUTED. 


"Blessed  are  they  that  have  been 
Persecuted:  for  Righteousness' 
sake:  for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.'1 


VHL 

OF  THE  PERSECUTED. 

THE:  life  of   the  spirit  in  relation  tQy 
its.  environment,  anticipated,  as  we 
have.,  seen,  in  the  character  and  work  off 
the  Peacemaker,  may  be  said  to  be  the, 
theme  of  the  eighth  and  concluding  Bea- 
titude, "Blessed  are  tfyey  that  have  been 
persecuted    for,   righteousness'  sake,    for. 
theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. "  Apart 
fr,om  iits  own  clear-  message,  which  we 
shall    presently    consider,    the    positipn^ 
assigned  this  Beatitude  of  the  Persecuted 
in  the  octave  of  blessedness  is  in  itself 
instructive.     The  portrayal  of  the  inner 
life,  in  its  previous  stages  has  peen  invest- 
ed  with   an   atmosphere   of   mysticism. 
'•'Tempers  and  dispositions  of  the  soul" 
have  been  appraised,  and  their  spiritual 
equivalents  given.   To  the  coldly  matter- 

127 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

of -fact  and  unspiritual,this  expression,  "an 
atmosphere  of  mysticism,"  is  very  nearly 
synonymous  with  "an  air  of  unreality." 
It  suggests  a  region  veiled  from  sight  and 
sense,  unrelated  to  the  actualities  of  the 
world's  life.  Keenly  conscious  of  this, 
and  with  a  just  valuation  of  the  ministry 
of  environment  in  the  final  development 
of  the  life  of  the  spirit,  the  Master  closes 
his  eight-fold  pronouncement  of  bless- 
edness by  objectifying  the  Christian 
character  in  an  apotheosis  of  martyrdom : 
"Blessed  are  ye  when  men  shall  reproach 
you,  and  persecute  you,  and  say  all  man- 
ner of  evil  against  you  falsely,  for  my 
sake.  Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad :  for 
great  is  your  reward  in  heaven."  The 
character  formed  in  secret  now  emerges 
into  the  light,  becomes  a  factor  to  be 
reckoned  with  by  the  world,  whose  hos- 
tility it  provokes,  and  finds  its  reward  in 
the  discovery  that  it  is  no  shadowy  and 
unsubstantial  thing,  but  the  enduring 
workmanship  of  God. 


128 


Of  the  Persecuted. 

ITS   PLACE  IN  THE  OCTAVE. 

The  impression  that  we  have  in  this 
final  Beatitude  an  element  which  impairs 
the  spiritual  sequence"  and  violates  the 
structural  unity  of  the  octave,  results 
from  a  failure  to  perceive  the  intention  of 
this  last  touch  of  the  Master  in  his  scheme 
of  blessedness,  namely,  to  objectify  and 
visualize  the  spiritual  life  and  character, 
and  thus  to  cause  the  environment  into 
which  it  is  projected  to  minister  to  its 
completeness.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
conceive  an  ending  more  thoroughly  in 
keeping  with  the  body  of  Christ's  teach- 
ing, both  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  to 
which  the  Beatitudes  form  a  sort  of  pro- 
logue, and  in  the  gospel  narratives  gen- 
erally. Moreover,  this  teaching  is  a  tran- 
script from  his  own  experience  in  the 
field  of  the  spiritual  life.  The  patient 
years  of  his  preparation,  "all  touched  by 
awe  and  serious  thought,"  are  reflected 
in  the  earlier  Beatitudes,  while  his  active 
ministry,  with  its  deeds  of  mercy,  and 

129 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

persecution  encountered  in  the  path  of 
peacemaking,  are  imaged  in  the  later  ones. 
With  'these  thoughts  in  mind  we  are 
prepared  to  examine  more  closely  the 
particular  beatitude  before  us.  Perse- 
:ctrti6h  considered  with  respect  to  its  sig- 
nificance as 'a  factor  in  spiritual  devel- 
opment, its  essentially  ethical  quality, 
and  its  purely  spiritual  reward,  suggests 
a  division  of  the  subject  that  will  assist  us 
to  develop  its  meaning  and  apply  its 
teaching. 

ITS    SIGNIFICANCE. 

The  significance  of  persecution,  that 
is,  of  the  unfriendly,  inhospitable  attitude 
of  the  world  towards  those  traits  of  life 
and  character  that  judge  and  condemn 
it,  cannot  be  overlooked  as  a  factor  in 
:spiritual  development.  The  Founder  of 
Christianity  clearly  foresaw  that  the 
introduction  of  a  new  and  higher  type  of 
spiritual  manhood  would  inevitably  of- 
fend and  antagonize,  where  it  failed  to 
assimilate  or  alter,  and  as  an  incentive  to 

130 


Of  the  Persecuted. 

courage  and  steadfastness  on  the  part  of 
his  followers,  showed  that  such  antago- 
nisms would  not  only  serve  the  interests  of 
that  higher  life  which  it  sought  to  destroy, 
but  would  seal  its  blessedness.  This  he 
had  tested  in  his  own  experience,  and  the 
disciples  were1  to  drink  of 'his  cup  and  to 
be  baptized  with  his  baptism. 

Efforts  are  sometimes  made  to  recon- 
struct the  earliest  period  o"f  Christian  his- 
tory with  a  view  to  the  discovery  of  the 
true  nature  of  the  dynamic  which  in  the 
first  centuries  endued  Christianity  with 
a  peculiar  and  unique  potency.  The  pro- 
blem, as  we  know,  is  many-sided,  and 
there  are -countless  avenues  of  approach, 
yet  it  is  possible  that  its  very  simplicity 
confuses  us.  Viewed  from  its  positive 
side,  the  dynamic  of  Christianity  is  the 
living  Christ,  known  to  us  as  a  fact  of  con- 
scious experience,  vitally  ~  related  to  all 
that  we' thiilk  or  do,  the  vision  of  all  that 
we  may  hope  to  be.  This  was  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints.  But  the 
earliest  saints  did  not  rest  in  contempla- 

131 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

tion  of  the  greatness  of  this  disclosure, 
nor  were  they  satisfied  to  hand  it  down  to 
future  ages  in  sacrament,  in  creed,  in 
word  of  testimony,  as  a  trust  inviolate. 
They  were  not  theologians;  they  were 
martyrs,  confessors.  As  Christ  had  been, 
so  were  they  in  the  world,  witnesses  to 
an  unseen  spiritual  order ;  with  this  clear 
difference,  that  while  to  him  this  order 
had  been  the  reign  of  an  invisible  Divine 
Father,  whom  no  man  had  seen  at  any 
time,  nor  indeed  could  see,  to  them  it  was 
the  presence  of  their  living  Lord,  whose 
bodily  withdrawal  had  been  the  signal  of 
a  glorious  return  with  renewed  power  to 
help,  to  sustain,  and  to  bless.  Therefore, 
when  the  world  reproached  them,  and 
persecuted  them,  and  uttered  all  manner 
of  evil  against  them  falsely,  they  believed 
it  was  for  his  sake,  and  they  rejoiced, 
and  were  exceeding  glad.  Is  there  not 
room  for  self-criticism  as  we  recall  the 
suffering  triumphs  of  these  early  Chris- 
tians? With  what  keen  irony  did  Christ 
say  to  the  Pharisees,  "the  world  cannot 

132 


Of  the  Persecuted. 

hate  you,  but  me  it  hateth,  because  I 
testify  of  it  that  its  deeds  are  evil?" 

THE  PERMANENT  ELEMENT. 

Assuming  that  thevbeatitude  before  us 
contains  a  permanent  element,  what 
inference  must  be  drawn  from  the  reflec- 
tion that  Christian  experience  affords  no 
equivalent  to  this  persecution  for  right- 
eousness' sake,  no  distant  semblance  of 
martyrdom,  no  faint  shadow  of  reproach 
for  the  name  of  Christ?  Either  that  the 
spirit  of  Christ  has  finally  conquered, 
and  the  Kingdom  of  Righteousness,  over 
which  he  shall  reign  forever,  is  at  the 
point  of  realization,  or  else  that  the  vigor 
of  Christian  character  has  become  en- 
feebled, its  authority  impaired,  its  power 
to  make  the  cause  of  righteousness  a  living 
issue  in  the  affairs  of  life,  discredited  or 
denied.  When  the  Christian  life  is  lived 
upon  its  higher  levels,  and  Christ's  abso- 
lute standards  become  intimately  related 
to  each  problem  of  experience,  because 
his  living  Presence  is  the  central  fact  of 

133 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

that  experience,  then  Christian  character 
reverts  to  the  simplicity  of  its  earliest  and 
purest  type;  the  world  takes  knowledge 
of  Christian  men  and  women  that  they 
have  been  with  Christ,  and  some  attitude, 
other  than  that  of  mere  indifference,  in- 
variably results.  Sometimes  a  mysterious 
spiritual  awakening  ensues;  oftener  a 
disposition  of  hostility  is  developed.  The 
fact  remains  that  whenever  the  Christian 
life,  or  Christ-life,  is  lived  in  earnest,  the 
permanent  element  in  the  Beatitude  of 
the  Persecuted  is  discovered. 

ENRICHMENT  OF  EXPERIENCE. 

-The  significance  of  persecution  as  a 
factor  in  spiritual  development  may  be 
seen  both  in  its  power  to  make  Christian 
experience  joyously  conscious  of  itself, 
and  in  its  mission  to  heighten  and  enrich 
the  quality  of  that  experience.  Thus  St. 
Peter  writes:  "Beloved,  think  it  not 
strange  concerning  the  fiery  trial  among 
you  which  cometh  upon  you,  as  if  a  strange 
thing  happened  unto  you;  but  rejoice, 

134 


Of  the  Persecuted. 

insomuch  as  ye  are  partakers  of  Christ's 
sufferings;  that  at  the  revelation  of  his 
glory  ye  may  rejoice  with  exceeding  joy. 
If  ye  are  reproached  for  the  name  of 
Christ,  blessed  are  ye;  because  the  spirit 
of  glory  and  the  spirit  of  God  resteth 
upon  you. ' '  With  what  distinctness  does 
the  Apostle  in  this  glowing  passage  re- 
produce the  Beatitude  of  the  Persecuted ! 
The  thought  glows  with  the  intensity  of 
personal  feeling,  and  each  word  throbs 
with  meaning!  "Beloved,"  he  declares, 
"a  fiery  trial  awaits  you,  but  think  it  not 
strange,  rather  rejoice,  and  be  exceeding 
glad. ' '  He  then  adds,  "If  ye  are  reproach- 
ed for  the  name  of  Christ,  blessed  are  ye!" 
alleging  as  a  reason,  that  "the  spirit  of 
glory  and  the  spirit  of  God  resteth  upon 
you!"  In  the  light  of  Christ's  accom- 
plished work,  and  of  the  Apostle's  ap- 
proaching martyrdom,  the  'Beatitude  of 
the  Persecuted  in  this  later  setting  is 
clothed  with  a  richness  of  meaning,  and  a 
spiritual  elevation,  which  its  earlier  form 
could  but  dimly  forecast,  yet  all  of  its  un- 

135 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

told  depth  of  beauty  and  preciousness  must 
have  been  real  to  the  Master's  heart 
when  he  first  uttered  it,  amid  the  peace- 
ful scenes,  and  in  the  sweet  security,  of 
his  dawning  Galilean  ministry.  The 
experience  of  Peter  is  an  experience  com- 
mon to  all  of  the  disciples  whose  words 
have  come  down  to  us.  The  records  of 
their  sufferings  are  pervaded  with  a  seren- 
ity and  a  joyousness  that  rise  ever  into 
rapture  as  the  ministry  of  pain  mediates 
to  consciousness  the  presence  and  the 
glory  of  the  unseen  yet  living  Christ. 

ITS  ETHICAL  QUALITY. 

Our  examination  of  the  significance  of 
persecution  as  a  factor  in  spiritual  devel- 
opment leads  us  to  consider  next  the 
Beatitude  of  the  Persecuted  in  respect  to 
the  essentially  ethical  quality  which  lies 
at  the  heart  of  it.  With  a  single  character- 
istic touch  Christ  lifts  it  from  the  low 
level  of  persecution  for  its  own  sake, 
where  he  might  conceivably  have  left  it, 
to  the  nobler  plane  of  persecution  for 

136 


Of  the  Persecuted. 

righteousness'  sake,  where  he  leaves  it 
for  all  time.  Had  no  lofty  words  of  quali- 
fication been  introduced,  had  blessed- 
ness been  invoked  upon  the  persecuted  of 
mankind  as  such,  assuredly  a  Beatitude 
had  been  framed  in  accordance  with  that 
universal  instinct  of  pity  which  so  often 
closes  its  eyes  to  moral  distinctions,  and 
fancies  suffering  and  reproach  as  in  them- 
selves the  mark  of  heaven's  favor.  This 
is  the  situation  so  justly  analyzed  in  the 
earlier  part  of  the  Epistle  from  which  we 
have  quoted,  where  the  Apostle  declares 
"This  is  acceptable;  if  for  conscience  to- 
ward God  a  man  endureth  griefs,  suf- 
fering wrongfully."  "For  what  glory  is 
it,"  he  asks,  "if  when  ye  sin  and  are 
buffeted  for  it,  ye  shall  take  it  patiently  ? 
but  if  when  ye  do  well,  and  suffer  for  it, 
ye  shall  take  it  patiently,  this  is 
acceptable  with  God."  Without  under- 
valuing the  ministry  of  pain  in  the 
spiritual  life,  the  Apostle  would  have 
us  keep  clearly  in  view  the  distinc- 
tion between  suffering  for  well-doing, 

137 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

that  is,  for  righteousness'  sake,  and  suf- 
fering for  wrong-doing,  that  is,  as  a  result 
of  our  own  folly  or  ignorance,  the  former 
being  Christ-like,  the  latter  devoid;  of 
spiritual  significance.  Suffering  in  itself 
may  make  for  righteousness;  the  lone- 
liness, the, famine,  and  the  heartache,  may 
drive  the  soul  back  to  God ;  but  righteousr 
ness  in  such  a  case  is  the  outcome  of  the 
reproach  inflicted  or  the  suffering  borne, 
not  the.  condition,  that  provokes  it.  The. 
Beatitude  of  the  Persecuted,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  based  upon  the  reproach  of 
Christ,  the  offense  of  the  Cross,  the  pen- 
alty inflicted  by  the  world  upon  a  life 
lived  above, its  maxims  of  right,  its  stan- 
dards of  duty  or  of  truth. 

FOR  RIGHTEOUSNESS^'  SAKE. 

More  pertinent  to  our  discussion  of  the 
ethical-  principle  that  lies  at  the  heart  of 
the  Beatitude  is  the  question,  what  mean- 
ing shall  we  attach  to  the  clause  "for 
righteousness'  sake?"  What  did  Christ 
wish  to  convey  by  the  term  "  right eous- 

138 


Of  the  Persecuted. 

ness"  in  the  connection  in  which  he  used 
it?  He  himself  anticipates  the  apparent 
difficulty  here,  and  offers  an  equivalent 
expression  which  greatly  simplifies  the 
practical  applications  of  the  Beatitude. 
In  the  secondary  form  of  the  Beatitude 
(verse  11)  he  substitutes  the  personal 
term  "for  my  sake"  for  the  general  term 
"for.  righteousness'  sake,"  and  thus  inter-, 
prets  his  thought,  giving  concreteness 
to  his  meaning.  "Blessed  are  ye  when 
men  s.hall  reproach  you,  and  persecute 
you,  and  say  all  manner  of  evil  against  y.ou 
falsely,  for  my  sake."  Had  no  such  pro-, 
vision  been  made ;  had  Christ  not  saifij  in- 
effect,  "the  cause  of  righteousness  is  my 
cause;"  it  is  not  an  abstract  formula  of 
truth,  or  a  visionary  dream  of  righteous- 
ness, but  a  living  spiritual  Presence,  that 
invokes  your  personal  loyalty;  is  it  not 
conceivable  that  we  should  have  framed 
some  narrower  and  less  lofty  equivalent 
to ;  suit  our  needs  ?  "Blessed  are  they  that 
have  been  persecuted  for  conscience 
sake",  might  suggest  itself  as  a  convenient 

139 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

gloss  upon  our  Saviour's  words.  Thus,  to 
the  conscience  of  the  individual,  fidelity  to 
received  opinion,  or  subservience  to  the 
dictates  of  mere  tradition,  might  wear  the 
aspect  and  claim  the  blessedness  of  devo- 
tion to  truth;  bigotry  in  the  face  of  just 
reproof  might  mistake  itself  for  martyr- 
dom for  righteousness'  sake.  Doubtless 
fidelity  to  conscience  in  whatever  cause  is 
not  without  its  reward.  Furthermore,  it 
is  closely  akin  to  righteousness  when  it  is 
loyalty  to  its  own  inner  light  and  leading. 
But  the  Beatitude  of  the  Persecuted  for 
Righteousness'  sake  is  removed  from  this 
region  of  relativity  by  the  foresight  of 
Christ  himself,  who  gathers  all  lesser  loy- 
alties into  one  absolute  and  supreme 
loyalty,  making  devotion  to  truth  and 
righteousness  a  matter  of  simple  and 
consistent  devotion  to  himself.  This  it 
was,  as  we  have  already  shown,  that  gave 
beauty  and  significance  to  the  earliest 
Christian  martyrdoms,  before  truth  be- 
came veiled  under  the  forms  of  truth,  when 
Christians,  in  the  confidence  of  a  certain 

140 


Of  the  Persecuted. 

faith,    "endured  as  seeing    him  who   is 
invisible." 


THE  REWARD  OF  THE  PERSECUTED. 

Our  closing  reflection  upon  the  Beat- 
itude is  concerned  with  the  reward  of  the 
promised  blessedness,  "for  theirs  is  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  This  expression 
"the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  as  the  final 
word  in  Christ's  scheme  of  blessedness, 
brings  us  back  to  the  point  from  which  we 
started  in  the  earliest  of  the  Beatitudes. 
"The  keynote  touched  by  the  Master  in 
the  opening  chord  is  heard  with 
added  richness  of  meaning  in  the  closing 
strain."  Each  of  the  intervening  varia- 
tions of  blessedness  stands  related  to  this 
central  theme,  "The  Kingdom  of  Hea- 
ven," which,  as  we  have  seen,  Christ 
weaves  into  the  texture  of  all  his  teaching, 
and  makes  the  final  goal  of  the  spiritual 
life.  That  the  expression  is  symbolic- 
figurative — is  evident  beyond  question. 
What,  then,  is  the  spiritual  life-thought 

141 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

that  lies  beneath  the  figure,  veiled  in  its 
symbolism?  In  its  most  primary  aspect 
it  is  the  truth  of  the 'Divine  Indwelling; 
of  the  soul's  hidden  life  in  God,  and  of 
God's  living  presence  in  the  soul. 

"More  present  to  faith's  vision  keen 
Than  any  other  vision  seen; 
More  near,  more  intimately  nigh 
Than  any  other  earthly  tie." 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN. 

This  phrase,  "the  Kingdom  of  Hea- 
ven"— despite  the  limitations  imposed  by 
associations  of  Jewish  history  and  tradi- 
tion, of  which  it  is  difficult  to  divest  it 
—appeared  to  the  mind  of  Christ  the 
most  available  term  in  which  to  express 
the  truth  of  the  Divine  Indwelling,  to- 
gether with  the  correlative  truth  of  the 
soul's  relation  to  this  source  of  its  life  and 
blessedness.  The  "Kingdom"  meant  more 
than  the  enthroned  presence  and  acknow- 
ledged authority  of  its  Invisible  King.  It 
implied  allegiance ;  God's  royalty  was  to  be 
met  by  the  soul's  loyalty,  and  this  not  by 

142 


Of  the  Persecuted. 

the  influence  of  compelling  duty,  but  by 
the  power  of  constraining  love.  "If  any 
man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  word ;  and 
my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come 
unto  him,  and  make  our  abode  with  him." 
The  significance  of  the  Kingdom  as  the 
reward  of  the  persecuted  may  be  found 
in  the  fact  that  this  inner  realm  of  God's 
presence  and  rule,  at  first  dimly  appre- 
hended through  a  sense  of  spiritual  need 
and  desolation  (Blessed  are  the  poor  in 
spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of  Hea- 
ven) is  now  completely  realized  as  a  fact 
of  conscious  experience.  Man  becomes 
conscious  of  God,  even  as  knowledge  of 
whatever  sort  becomes  real  to  the  mind, 
that  is,  defined  to  consciousness,  through 
expression.  As  persecution  and  reproach 
are  inflicted  from  without,  the  soul's  God- 
consciousness  is  intensified  within,  obe- 
dience is  expressed  in  terms  of  personal 
loyalty,  and  duty  is  glorified  by  love. 
"Blessed  are  ye  when  men  shall  reproach 
you  and  persecute  you,  and  say  all  man- 
ner of  evil  against  you  falsely,  for  my 

143 


The  Beatitudes  of  Jesus. 

sake.  Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad ;  for 
great  is  your  reward  in  heaven:  for  so 
persecuted  they  the  prophets  which  were 
before  you." 


144 


